Updated

Updated · Popular Science · Sep 9

Paleontologists Document 4 Adult T. rex Footprints in First Known 23-Foot Trackway

Updated

Updated · Popular Science · Sep 9

Paleontologists Document 4 Adult T. rex Footprints in First Known 23-Foot Trackway

Q: What hidden secrets about the T. rex's daily life did an amateur fossil hunter accidentally uncover in the North Dakota badlands?

An amateur fossil hunter uncovered a rare snapshot of an adult T. rex’s everyday movement: it was calmly walking across a muddy Late Cretaceous landscape in what is now North Dakota. The key find was the first known adult T. rex trackway, discovered by high school teacher and longtime fossil hunter Kent Hups in the Hell Creek Formation near Marmarth. What he spotted as an odd raised shape turned out to be part of a sequence of four confirmed footprints, each nearly 3 feet long, stretching about 23 feet. Researchers say the size, narrow three-toed shape and 13-foot stride strongly indicate a full-grown T. rex. What this reveals is behavior that bones cannot show. From the spacing and layout of the prints, scientists estimate the animal was moving at only about 3.5 to 4.5 miles per hour, roughly a brisk human walking pace. That suggests the predator was not charging or hunting at full speed, but simply moving through its environment at a leisurely pace. The trackway also offers clues to biomechanics and foot anatomy, and possibly skin and pad structure, because footprints preserve how the foot actually met the ground. Researchers documented the site with high-resolution 3D scans and replicas before planning excavation. In short, Hups accidentally revealed not just that T. rex lived there, but how one adult actually walked across the landscape 66.5 million years ago—a fleeting moment of daily life preserved in stone.

3 articles · Updated · Popular Science · Sep 9

Four footprints preserved along a 23-foot path in North Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation mark the first known trackway from an adult Tyrannosaurus rex, according to a new Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology study.
Each print is about 3 feet long, and left-right spacing suggests a large adult with a 13-foot stride moving at roughly 3.5 to 4.5 mph, though erosion makes the speed estimate uncertain.
Researchers from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Liverpool John Moores University found the 66.5-million-year-old trackway last year near Marmath and used high-resolution 3D scans to analyze and reproduce it.
Three of the four footprints are slated for excavation later this year and will be flown by helicopter to the Denver museum, where the rare trackway could offer behavioral evidence bones cannot.

Sources

Popular Science4h ago

First Adult T. rex Trackway Discovered in North Dakota

IFLScience4h ago

World's First Adult T. Rex Trackway With 4-Meter Stride Discovered By High School Teacher | IFLScience

Taylor & Francis Newsroom7h ago

First-ever trackway of adult T. rex discovered - Taylor & Francis Newsroom

6 Sources

What hidden secrets about the T. rex's daily life did an amateur fossil hunter accidentally uncover in the North Dakota badlands?

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