Sun Jan 05 02:55:32 UTC 2025: **Dinosaur Highway Yields Hundreds of Jurassic Footprints**
OXFORDSHIRE, UK (January 5, 2025) – A limestone quarry in Oxfordshire, dubbed the “dinosaur highway,” has yielded over 200 new dinosaur footprints, significantly expanding the already impressive collection discovered there. The recent discovery, announced by a team of over 100 scientists from the University of Birmingham and the University of Oxford, adds to the more than two score footprints found in 1997.
The newly found tracks, dating back 166 million years to the Middle Jurassic period, were brought to light in June 2024 when a quarry worker noticed unusual bumps while digging for clay. Analysis revealed five trackways, four belonging to sauropods (long-necked herbivores) of the *Cetiosaurus* species, and one to a *Megalosaurus* carnivore. The sauropod tracks vary in size, suggesting a herd of both adults and juveniles travelled together. One sauropod track shows an abrupt stop, possibly indicating a reaction to the nearby *Megalosaurus*.
The discovery of the *Megalosaurus* footprint holds special significance, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the first detailed examination of a *Megalosaurus* fossil in 1824, a landmark event in the study of dinosaurs by William Buckland. The researchers believe all the animals were walking, not running, when they made the prints. The findings further solidify the quarry’s reputation as a rich source of Jurassic-era dinosaur tracks.
First Piper 