A quarry worker in Oxfordshire has uncovered the largest dinosaur trackway ever found in Britain, with nearly 200 footprints dating back 166 million years. Gary Johnson, an employee at Dewars Farm Quarry, noticed unusual bumps in the limestone while clearing clay with a digger. Subsequent excavation by over 100 scientists, students, and volunteers revealed five trackways stretching up to 150 metres in length.
The footprints are believed to have been made by two types of dinosaur: the herbivorous cetiosaurus, a four-legged sauropod, and the smaller carnivorous megalosaurus. One area shows where the paths crossed, with the megalosaurus stepping onto a cetiosaurus print. Experts from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham suggest the trackways may extend further beyond the excavated area.
Prof Kirsty Edgar from the University of Birmingham described the site as 'one of the most impressive track sites I’ve ever seen, in terms of scale, in terms of size of the tracks.' The team made plaster casts, took 20,000 photographs, and created 3D models using drones. The discovery will feature on the BBC series Digging for Britain next week.
Dr Emma Nicholls from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History noted that the megalosaurus print is 'almost like a caricature of a dinosaur footprint,' with three clear toes. The megalosaurus, a predator up to 9 metres long, was the largest Jurassic predatory dinosaur in Britain. Prof Richard Butler added that such trackways provide unique insights into dinosaur movement and environment, which cannot be obtained from bones alone.
