(Raúl Esperante via SWNS)
By Dean Murray
Researchers have discovered the world’s busiest dinosaur superhighway.
Archaeologists in Chile have documented more than 16,000 tracks left by three-toed theropod dinosaurs as they walked, ran, and swam along an ancient coastline.
The Carreras Pampas tracksite in Torotoro National Park sets new world records for the number of individual dinosaur footprints, continuous trackways, tail traces, and swimming traces.
Dinosaur tracks at the Carreras Pampas tracksite in Torotoro National Park in Bolivia. (Raúl Esperante via SWNS)
A new study highlights an unprecedented abundance of imprints that suggest this was a high-traffic area, and the parallel orientation of some footprints might indicate groups of dinosaurs travelling together.
The fossil site study has been published this week by Raúl Esperante of the Geoscience Research Institute, California, U.S., and colleagues.
The authors note that many more footprints remain to be explored at this tracksite and others in Bolivia.
(Raúl Esperante via SWNS)
A release on the study said: "This site is a stunning window into this area’s past. Not just how many dinosaurs were moving through this area, but also what they were doing as they moved through.”
“It’s amazing working at this site, because everywhere you look, the ground is covered in dinosaur tracks.”
Raúl Esperante adds: "Carreras Pampa stands out for several reasons. In addition to preserving the most dinosaur tracks worldwide, it also preserves the highest number of swim trackways, evidence of several types of unusually preserved locomotive behaviours, and one of the highest numbers of dinosaur tail traces anywhere in the world."