T rex footprints unearthed in first-ever discovery 66 million years after creature walked the Earth

Researchers in North Dakota discovered what they believe to be the first known trackway left by an adult T.rex.(Tyler Lyson)

The prints are roughly 3 feet long — and their enormous size led researchers to determine that they were left by an adult T.rex.

The identification was “based on the footprints’ exceptional size and narrow shape of the toes, along with the abundance ofT.rex fossilsfound in the surrounding area,” the museum said in a statement.

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While other isolated footprints have been attributed to adult T.rex, researchers said no adult T.rex trackway had been described previously.

“This is the first time scientists have described a sequence of tracks, or trackway, likely left by this most famous of dinosaurs,” the release also noted.

“I have no doubt that if we were to continue to dig further into a hill … we would find more.”

Tyler Lyson, the senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature &Science and the study�

“Initially I wasn’t convinced because it was only one print,” Lyson said.

Rocks, he noted, “can erode into many different types of shapes.”

T.rex was a massive apex predator that roamed western North America during the final chapter of the dinosaur age.(Culture Club/Getty Images)

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“I thought, well, if there’s three, that’s a pattern,” he said.“If we can find a third print, then I’ll be a true believer.”

The team began digging farther into the hill — and within about 30 minutes, they struck a third print.

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“At that point, myself, [plus] Kent, who found the trackway — we were absolutely ecstatic,” Lyson said.

The four footprints — two left and two right — were spaced at a stride of approximately 13 feet.

Researchers determined the dinosaur was likely walking between 3.5 and 4.5 miles per hour when it left the tracks.(Kent Hups)

The dinosaur may have been walking between 3.5 and 4.5 miles per hour — much like humans do today — the researchers estimated.

They used high-resolution 3D surface scanning todocument the footprintsand entire trackway.

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The study’s lead author, Peter Falkingham, a paleobiology professor at Liverpool John Moores University in England, then analyzed the footprints remotely using the 3D data, even though he never saw the tracks in person.

The team returned to the site this summer and made another discovery while excavating farther into the hill: a fifth track. 

“I have no doubt that if we were to continue to dig further into a hill that we would find more,” Lyson said.

Tyler Lyson, seen at left, led the fieldwork behind the newly described T.rex trackway.(Natalie Toth;De Agostini via Getty Images)

The footprints are each more than 3 feet long.They likely weigh between 800 and 1,000 pounds, according to Lyson.

Three of the tracks are slated to be recovered in October, when crews will place them in a helicopter net and airlift them out ofthe rugged Badlands, he said. 

At the museum, researchers plan to clean the tracks — and Lyson said he’s hopeful they could contain preserved skin impressions.

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“By cleaning these tracks, we might be able to have a better idea of what the actual foot of a T.rex looked like,” he said.

The recent research follows other dinosaur-related discoveries from across the world.

Researcher Alex Polich is pictured at left.The ancient T.rex trackway stretches over 23 feet and consists of four massive, three-toed footprints.(Natalie Toth;Tyler Lyson)

Last year, paleontologists revealed a roughly 150-million-year-old dinosaur trackway in Colorado that may have preserved the footsteps of alimping long-necked sauropod.

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Shortly after, scientists announced anew species of Spinosaurus, a meat-eating dinosaur that may have rivaled T.rex in size.