At Dewars Farm Quarry, in Oxfordshire, a fascinating find has made light of about 200 dinosaur footprints from the Middle Jurassic period, around 166 million years old. Scientists suspect these footprints to be of the vast ‘dinosaur highway’ and represent prints from a behemoth vegetarian giant as well as the nearly nine-meter-long predator Megalosaurus”.
Key Discoveries and Insights The excavation revealed five primary trackways, one extending over 150 meters. Four trackways were linked to giant sauropods, likely Cetiosaurus, measuring up to 18 meters in length. A fifth trackway belonged to the carnivorous theropod Megalosaurus, identifiable by its distinct three-toed footprints. Intriguingly, sauropod and Megalosaurus tracks intersect at one point, suggesting potential interactions between the species.
According to Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate paleontologist at Oxford University Museum of Natural History, “This discovery gives new dimensions to our understanding of these ancient creatures.”.
Discovery and Documentation The discovery was initiated when quarry employee Gary Johnson noticed bumps while clearing clay. A team of researchers from the universities of Oxford and Birmingham spent a week in June 2024 painstakingly excavating and documenting the site, with advanced technology including drone photography to create 3D models of the tracks. More than 20,000 images were taken, which enabled studies about the footprints and their environment with an excellent level of precision.
Connecting the Past: This discovery, while new in itself, is related to earlier work from 1997, in which more than 40 footprints of dinosaurs had been discovered within the same locality. With present technology, finer details can now be documented. These will inform on dinosaur biology, behavior, and the conditions of the once-tropical lagoon environment that existed.
These footprints give us an extraordinary glimpse into how dinosaurs moved and interacted with their environment,” said micropaleontologist Kirsty Edgar from the University of Birmingham.
Public Engagement and Future Research The results will be shown on BBC’s Digging for Britain series and in the “Breaking Ground” exhibition at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, where visitors can see original Megalosaurus fossils and state-of-the-art paleontological techniques in action.
This discovery not only enriches our understanding of the Middle Jurassic but also shows how modern technology continues to transform paleontology.
