Palaeontologists have discovered what is believed to be the first known trackway left by a fully grown Tyrannosaurus rex.
They found four connected footprints preserved in the badlands of southwestern North Dakota, near the Montana border, according to the Guardian .
T. rex lived around 66 to 68 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period and was among the last non-avian dinosaurs to roam Earth before the mass extinction that ended the age of the dinosaurs.
Until now, only two confirmed footprints from adult T. rex had been found anywhere in the world – one in New Mexico and another in Montana. The discovery, described in a new paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology , offers a rare glimpse into how an adult T. rex moved. Both were isolated tracks and provided little information about the dinosaur’s movement. The size and shape of the tracks helped researchers identify them as belonging to an adult T. rex. The team used high-resolution 3D scanning technology to record the footprints in detail. The scans allowed researchers to digitally study the tracks and create physical replicas without disturbing the original site.
The newly discovered footprints are about 66.5 million years old. Each footprint measures roughly 3 feet (0.9 metres) long, with the dinosaur leaving about 13 feet (4 metres) between successive steps.
“The technology we’re able to apply in the digital age means my colleagues could scan the tracks in the field and then send the 3D information over to me to visualise on my computer and in VR, enabling me to take as close a look as they did in person,” Peter Falkingham, a professor of paleobiology at Liverpool John Moores University and lead author of the study said.
Researchers found them last year on federal land near Marmarth, North Dakota, close to the state’s southwestern border.
