Dinosaur Footprints

Article | Updated 10 years ago

Preserved dinosaur footprints capture unique moments in prehistoric time and reveal behaviour.

Footprints of extinct dinosaurs have been found on every continent, except Antarctica. These reveal behaviour that may be difficult to deduce, or prove, from studying fossilised bones alone. Most of what we know about Cretaceous dinosaurs from Western Australia is based on trackways preserved in the Broome Sandstone. Unlike fossil bone, footprints are not easily destroyed by acidic groundwater and may be preserved in weathered rocks where the bones of dinosaurs are long gone.

Examining footprints

By examining individual footprints and trackways, scientists have found that dinosaurs that walked on four legs walked much like quadrupedal mammals, with their limbs directly underneath the body. Trackways rarely show any evidence of tail drag marks which is why dinosaurs are now thought to have held their tails well off the ground. By measuring the stride length and the size of dinosaur footprints, scientists can estimate the height of the dinosaur at the hips and how fast it was walking or running.

Cast of a 100 million-year-old bipedal footprint

Cast of a 100 million-year-old bipedal footprint
IMAGE: SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY

Bipedal dinosaur tracks from the mid-Cretaceous discovered at Dinosaur Ridge, near Morrison, Colorado, USA.

Two-legged tracks
Bipedal dinosaur tracks from the mid-Cretaceous discovered at Dinosaur Ridge, near Morrison, Colorado, USA.
IMAGE: JIM HARRIS