A team of over 100 experts of the University of Oxford And Birmingham He discovered and re -examined new dinosaurs tracks In a quarry in theOxfordshirein the United Kingdom. These slopes we can define them as the “dinosaurs highways” and are a series of fossil footprints left by animals as they walked. In this case, it is five slopes containing beyond 200 footprints, belonging to several specimens herbivores And predators dating back to Jurassic middleabout 166 millions Of years ago. The footprints are among the best preserved in the world and impress for their size.
The random discovery and details of the slopes found in the United Kingdom
As often happens, the discovery took place by chance. Gary Johnsonan operator of the quarry DeWars Farmlocated in the Oxfordshire, in central-southern England, has come across a sort of dosso in the ground while he removed the clay with an excavator. A second dossus emerged at a distance of three metersfollowed by another after another three meters. It was then that Gary Johnson realized that it was not simple soil irregularity.
In total, they were found five fossil tracksbut it is very likely that others are still present in the area. Already in the 90s, in fact, traces of dinosaurs had been discovered in a neighboring area. The longest track found in DeWars Farm measures 150 meters. However, this measure is incompletesince the traces end against the Cava walls that have not yet been excavated, which suggests that the actual length can be significantly greater. Despite this, the discovery already represents the bigger journey of dinosaurs never found in United Kingdom.
Scholars believe that 4 of the 5 slopes have been left by the passage of Sauropod belonging to the genre Cetiosauruslarge herbivorous dinosaurs with a long neck, the height of which could reach the 18 meters. The fifth track, however, would be attributable to a Megalosaura dinosaur carnivorous bipede belonging to the group of Teropods. This track is particularly distinctive, as it is the only track with tridtery footprint – characterized by Three thin fingers with claws.
A curiosity: The first dinosaur never discovered And ranked is a megalosaur of Oxfordshire county, found in 1600 and described by the naturalist William Buckland In 1824.
The importance of the discovery of the DeWars Farm slopes
The discovery is of importance that touches several aspects as they are tracks and footprints extremely well preserved. Prof.ssa Kirsty Edgarmicropalerontologist of the University of Birmingham commented on the discovery as follows:
This is one of the most impressive imprint sites I have ever seen, both for the scale and for the size of the footprints. You can make a jump back in time and imagine as it was: these huge creatures wandering around, dealing with their business.
The footprints are so well preserved that, in an area of the site where the track left by a sauropode yes cross With that of the megalosaur, paleontologists managed to reconstruct which animal had passed first. The imprint of the Erbivore exemplary is slightly crushed In the front by the three fingers of the megalosaur, indicating that the latter has passed later.
The footprints provide valuable information on behavior and on size of the animals that left them. According to experts, for example, the megalosaur – the greatest predator of the Jurassic ever known in the United Kingdom – would have had a length between the 6 he is 9 meters.
Finally, the slopes also tell a lot about theenvironment in which these dinosaurs lived. About 166 million years agoa vast lagoon warm And little deep It was found where the Cava Dewars Farm stands today. The dinosaurs left their footprints walking slowly on limestone. After their formation, the casts would have been covered with layers of sediments, probably transported by a storm, which would insulate them from the atmospheric agents, thus preventing that they were gradually canceled.
