🌅 The Most Dinosaur Tracks Ever Discovered

SOURCE

Esperante et al. (2025)

WHAT TO KNOW

• Researchers studying an ancient coastline now located in central Bolivia have identified and catalogued 16,600 fossilized footprints that belonged to bipedal, three-toed dinosaurs known as theropods. The team from the Geoscience Research Institute in California also identified 1,378 swim tracks, including several that had tail traces.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The discovery at Bolivia's Carreras Pampa tracksite represents the largest number of dinosaur footprints ever discovered at a single tracksite, as well as the most swimtracks ever found. Even more important than the number of tracks is what they tell us about dinosaur behavior, recording the animals running, making sharp turns, swimming, and dragging their tails. The footprints also range in size from a few inches to more than a foot, suggesting a mix of theropods passed through the area.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• The Carreras Pampa tracksite spans 80,500 square feet in Bolivia’s Torotoro National Park. The researchers say the sheer number of footprints reinforces the belief that the area was a prehistoric superhighway for dinosaurs, while the parallel orientation of some of the tracks suggest groups of dinosaurs may have traveled together.