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most widespread dinosaur The trackway discovered so far in Europe has been exposed in one place oxfordshire The mine, astonishing paleontologists, has yielded new insights into how dinosaurs roamed the landscape.
An astonishing 220-metre footprint left by giant sauropod dinosaurs – a family of herbivorous four-legged animals with long necks and tails – was discovered at Dewars Farm Quarry, near Bicester, during limestone removal work.
The track is believed to have been made by a species of sauropod called Cetiosaurus, which grew to about 16 meters in length and lived in Britain and France about 171 to 165 million years ago.
Team co-led Oxford University Museum of Natural History And the University of Birmingham discovered hundreds of different footprints at the site, including sauropod footprints as well as some rare three-toed prints believed to have been made by meat-eating megalosaurs.
“We have been working on this site since 2022 and are gradually uncovering more of this surface,” said Dr Duncan Murdock of the University of Oxford’s Museum of Natural History. Independent,
“This summer we excavated four trackways, the longest of which is 220 meters – with about a hundred individual footprints, each about a meter long – so huge.
“From this we can work out how big this animal was. Roughly the hip height is about four times the print, so about four meters to the hip, which makes it about 15 or 16 meters long from head to tail, and [weighing] Up to 10 tonnes.”
The tracks left by the animals give new clues about how they moved, particularly how fast they were moving.
Dr Murdock said speed calculations were “based on measurements of print as well as stride length”.
“From what we know today about the gait of four-legged animals like elephants, we can use estimates of stride length and hip height to calculate speed. If you’re running your stride becomes more separated than if you’re walking. Our estimate is [the dinosaur’s speed to be] About 4 or 5 miles an hour – about the average walking speed of most people,” he said.
What we now call Oxfordshire was a very different place 166 million years ago. Tectonic plate movements at the time meant that Britain was much further south than it is today – around the same latitude as Morocco – sea levels were much higher, creating large inland seas dotted with islands, and in addition, giant dinosaurs roamed the mudflats crossing the watery landscape.
Dr. Murdock said, “Think about the Florida Keys or the Bahamas Banks, that kind of thing. There would have been mud flats there that were sometimes exposed to the wind, and this is one of these mudflats running along the chain of islands that dinosaurs were walking on. They were taking advantage of that to move between islands.”
Although there are many sites around the world and in Britain where dinosaur tracks can be found – often near the coast where sea erosion is exposing rocks – however this site in Oxfordshire is unusual because of its scale.
Paleontologist Kirsty Edgar of the University of Birmingham told Independent: “It is very rare to see something like this in the UK as most of our dinosaur track sites are small coastal expanses. As the quarry continues to expand, the dinosaur tracks provide a rich snapshot of the life and times of these amazing animals.”
“It’s so exciting to be able to stand where some of the largest animals that ever lived walked and imagine what their lives and world looked like.”
He said: “Dinosaur tracks provide us with an opportunity to see how dinosaurs lived and what they were doing at that time, which we cannot get from the fossil record of the body alone.”
At present, dinosaur footprints are being carefully recorded before reburying them for safekeeping. Officials say there are no immediate plans to reopen the site or make the track accessible to the public.
However, discussions are ongoing with Natural England, quarry operators Smiths Blatchington and the local authority about the possibility of future excavation. Until then, the mine will remain in active use, with extraction operations continuing for the foreseeable future.