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“These tracks offer an extraordinary insight into the lives of dinosaurs, revealing details about their movements, interactions and the tropical environments they inhabited,” said Kirsty Edgar, professor of micropalaeontology at the University of Birmingham.
Over the summer, more than a hundred scientists from Oxford and Birmingham universities, students and volunteers took part in excavations in the quarry and discovered five different sets of tracks. Four of them, according to the scientists, were made by herbivorous, long-necked dinosaurs (sauropods). They believe that this was a Centiosaurus, which was up to 18 meters long. The fifth set was made by the carnivorous Megalosaurus, which was characterized by three-toed feet with claws. In 1824, scientists named and described it as the first dinosaur. The tracks of both species intersected in one place, which raises the question of whether and how the two types influenced each other.
Scientists have taken thousands of digital images and used drones to create three-dimensional models of the footprints. They want to use the documentation to clarify the size of the dinosaurs, the way they walked and the speed at which they moved.
Dinosaur tracks have been found in Oxfordshire several times, with around 40 discovered there in 1997. Quarry worker Gary Johnson, who found the tracks, was therefore vigilant during the excavation work. The findings will be presented to the public in a new exhibition at the Oxford Natural History Museum and will be broadcast on the BBC’s Digging for Britain programme on 8 January.
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