200 Dinosaur Footprints Estimated 166 Million Years Old Found In England

More than 200 dinosaur footprints estimated from 166 million years ago were found in Oxfordshire. (Source: Oxford University Museum of Natural History)

JAKARTA - At least 200 dinosaur footprints, estimated to date back to 166 million years ago, were discovered by Gary Johnson, a worker at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, England while driving a digger.

In the summer of 2024, more than 100 scientists, students and volunteers joined the excavation of the mine to uncover the footprints - which aired in a new TV series titled 'Digging for Britain'.

During the excavation, they found five sets of dinosaur tracks made by two different dinosaur species - sauropods and Megalosaurs, quoted from BBC January 25.

The four traces found by scientists were made by a sauropod, a giant plant-eating dinosaur that walks on four feet.

Their footprints look like elephant tracks, but much bigger, these dinosaurs were 18m long.

The fifth trace is thought to be made by Megalosaurs.

Quoted from the Natural History Museum site, Megalosaurs are agile hunters who walk on two feet and are the largest predatory dinosaurs known in the UK during the Jurassic era.

"This is one of the most impressive track sites I've ever seen, in terms of scale, in terms of track sizes," explained Prof. Kirsty Edgar, micro Paleontologist - a scientist who studied small dinosaur fossils using microscopy - from Birmingham University.

"You can go back to the past and get an idea of what these great creatures are like, doing their own business."

The team studied footprints carefully, taking more than 20,000 photos to create 3D models from sites and individual footprints, taking prints from several traces.

"The really beautiful thing about dinosaur footprints, especially if you have a footprint, is that it's a portrait of animal life," said Prof. Richard, Paleobiologist from Birmingham University.

"You can learn various things about how animals move. You can learn what the environment of where they live is like. So, the trail gives us a completely different set of information that you can't get from the fossil record of the bone," he explained.

The trail is believed to be related to a similar discovery made at other limestone mines in the area.

About 40 sets of footprints were found at nearby Ardley Mines in 1997, with several tracks reaching a length of 180 meters.

" Footprints are important because these traces preserve fossil behavior, something we can't get from animal bones alone," said Paleontologist from the Natural History Museum Dr. Susannah Maidment.

"For example, fossil footprints show that some dinosaurs live in swarms, and the speed of movement can also be accounted for roughly. So, footprints give us insight into the way that extinct animals live," he explained.

"Individual footprints are quite common found in the UK, especially on the coast around the Sussex, Whale of Wight, and Yorkshire, but the intact footprints are much more important, and the latest discovery in Oxfordshire is the longest ever found in the UK," Susannah said.

Oxfordshire, which is currently famous for its green and hilly fields, is very different if it returns to the Middle Jura Age

These dinosaurs definitely roam in muddy lagoons on the edge of shallow seas in a more tropical climate.

Apart from Cetiosaurs and Megalosaurs, the remains of other dinosaurs found in the area include plant-eating dinosaurs Camptosaurus and dinosaur meat-eating Eustreptospondylus. The area is also home to pterosaurs and small mammals.

However, the most famous dinosaur discovery in Oxfordshire was the jawbone of a Megalosaurus, which in 1824 became the first officially described dinosaur by scientists.

"The bones of the dinosaurs have been known from the area for a long time, but the remains are highly fragmented," Susannah said.

"The new traces confirm the sauropods and meat-eating theropods were alive here at the time.

Detailed studies by paleontologists and students at the University of Birmingham and Natural History Museum Oxford are likely to provide us with some interesting insights into these dinosaurs, but they haven't finished their work at that site yet.

"It will be interesting to see how these traces will be preserved in the future. Traces previously found in nearby mines are now covered by garbage disposal sites. It would be fantastic if these traces could be preserved and opened to the public so that everyone could see them," said Susannah.

What happened next with the footprints has not been decided, but scientists are working with Smith's Bletchington - the company that manages the mine - and Natural England, to discuss various options to preserve the site for the future.