AUSTIN: As a result of disastrous floods that flowed through the Texas Hill Country in July, an impressive paleontological discovery has emerged: dinosaur footprints discovered in Travis County, that is estimated to be over 110 million years old.
The floods, which claimed at least 135 lives, removed layers of sediment and debris by force of water, revealing a series of 15 unified three-toed footprints in the Sandy Creek area.
These tracks were found by a volunteer-supported cleanup effort and have since caught the attention of palaeontologists from the University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School Museum of Earth History.
According to Matthew Brown, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the museum, it looks as if the footprints belong to an Acrocanthosaurus, which was a carnivorous dinosaur. It was almost 35 feet tall and walked on two legs.
Upon measurement, 18 to 20 inches size of the footprint was found, which is also embedded in the Glen Rose Formation, a limestone layer known for preserving prehistoric fossils.
The discovery site is located where an 18th-century artillery piece was found in 1985, indicating the historical importance of the region.
Experts are now working to make sure that heavy machinery used in flood recovery does not damage the fossilised tracks.
A scientific team is dedicatedly doing mapping and 3D imaging to evaluate whether the footprints belong to a single dinosaur or a group.
This rare example of dinosaur footprints discovered due to a natural disaster stresses the random ways in which Earth’s ancient history can reappear.
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The Glen Rose Formation has long been a hoard for fossil hunters, and this latest find adds to its legacy.
As researchers get ready to study the site, everyone is reminded of the important balance between recovering from disasters and keeping our natural history safe.
The footprints give us a look at a world that existed more than a hundred million years ago, serving as an amazing reminder of our planet’s ancient past.