Hundreds of dinosaur footprints discovered in Oxfordshire

Nearly 200 dinosaur footprints have been discovered in a quarry in Oxfordshire, shedding new light on the extinct creatures.

The prints are 166 million years old and were discovered buried under mud in Dewars Farm Quarry after a worker noticed "unusual bumps" in the limestone quarry.

Five tracks of footprints were uncovered in what researchers said is part of a "dinosaur highway".

The longest continuous track found during the excavation in the summer is more than 150 metres in length.

Four of the sets of tracks that make up the so-called highway show paths taken by gigantic, long-necked, herbivores called sauropods, thought to be Cetiosaurus, a dinosaur that grew to nearly 18 metres in length.

The fifth track was made by a Megalosaurus, a carnivore that left a distinctive triple-claw print, researchers said.

An area where the tracks cross raises questions about possible interactions between the carnivores and herbivores.

"Scientists have known about and been studying Megalosaurus for longer than any other dinosaur on Earth, and yet these recent discoveries prove there is still new evidence of these animals out there, waiting to be found," said Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH).

Information on how dinosaurs walked, at what speed and how big they were can also be gleaned from the markings.

The Universities of Oxford and Birmingham jointly led a team of more than 100 on a week-long excavation.

About 200 footprints were uncovered with roughly 20,000 photographs taken. Detailed 3D models of the site were built using aerial drone photography.

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"The preservation is so detailed that we can see how the mud was deformed as the dinosaur's feet squelched in and out," Duncan Murdock, an earth scientist at OUMNH, said.

"Along with other fossils like burrows, shells, and plants, we can bring to life the muddy lagoon environment the dinosaurs walked through."

The findings will be shown at a new exhibit at the museum.

Discoveries had already been made near the quarry in 1997, when 40 sets of footprints were discovered - considered one of the world's most scientifically important dinosaur track sites.