SCIENTISTS have unearthed the world’s first known set of T-Rex footprints dating back over 66 million years.
Four giant three-toed prints left by the terrifying adult dinosaur were discovered by a team of scientists in North Dakota after a schoolteacher stumbled upon the prehistoric tracks.
The first-ever adult T. rex trackway discovered by scientists Credit: Denver Museum of Nature and Science
The primeval imprints are preserved as sandstone fossils Credit: National Science Foundation
The prints, which measure around 3.3ft long per footstep and go on for 23ft, are believed to date back 66.5 million years ago.
They were identified in the dinosaur fossil area known as Hells Creek Formation last year by researchers from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Colorado and Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.
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The unprecedented findings have just recently been published.
While single footprints and juvenile tracks have been found before, this marks the very first time a continuous trail left by a wandering T rex has been uncovered.
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The prints are around 3.3 ft long Credit: Denver Museum of Nature and Science
It is a worlds-first discovery Credit: National Science Foundation
Colorado schoolteacher, Kent Hups, was left in shock when he first stumbled upon the fossilised footprints.
Kent – who co-authored the paper – said: “As a teacher, I’m always telling my students that science starts with curiosity, passion and careful observation.
“I never imagined that could lead me to a discovery like this.”
The primeval imprints are preserved as fossils – formed when sandstone hardened into solid rock around the depressions.
Three of the discovered footprints are set to be recovered by helicopter later this year and transported to the museum in Denver.
Tyler Lyson, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science said: “With a trackway, we can actually follow an animal as it moved across the landscape.
“That is incredibly rare for T rex.
“Bones tell us an enormous amount about these animals, but footprints capture a moment of behaviour.”
The team also found T rex skeletal elements and skeletons in the local area, further reinforcement their belief that the tracks were made by a T rex.
The T rex, the most famous of all dinosaurs, lived about 66-68 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, according to the known fossil record.
It towered at 12-13ft tall, and was among the last non-flying dinosaurs to walk the Earth before a mass extinction event wiped them out.
It comes as scientists make another significant find- a chunk of fossilised dinosaur poo.
A feather of a bird eaten by the prehistoric beast 66 million years ago has recently been found to have survived within its solidified excrement.
The remains of the age-old dung are a look back in time to a feathery meal enjoyed by a dinosaur and could tell us why birds survived the asteroid strike that wiped out dinosaurs.
The fossilised faeces, known as coprolite, is believed to have belonged to a medium-sized dinosaur, such as a young T rex that lived on the land that is now the US state of Montana.
Jingmai O’Connor, the lead author of the newly published findings, explained: “It’s such a beautiful, well-preserved feather, from such an unexpected source, and it’s exciting that it could help us answer this huge question in paleontology.”
