First Known Adult T Rex Footprints Unearthed in North Dakota — SkimNews
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- Researchers from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Liverpool John Moores University identified the first known series of adult T rex footprints in southwestern North Dakota's Hell Creek Formation, a 23ft trackway of four three-toed prints dating to 66.5 million years ago.
- Each footprint measures about 3ft long with a stride of roughly 13ft, and high-resolution 3D surface scanning let the team estimate the animal was walking at 3.5–4.5mph — about a brisk human pace.
- Tyler Lyson, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver museum, said bones tell us a great deal but trackways capture a moment of behavior, calling it "incredibly rare for T rex."
- Kent Hups, a Colorado schoolteacher and longtime museum volunteer who first spotted the site, co-authored the published paper and said the discovery illustrates how science "starts with curiosity, passion and careful observation."
- Three of the four discovered footprints are set to be recovered by helicopter later this year and transported to the Denver museum, with physical 3D reproductions already created from the scans.
- The findings mark the first confirmed adult T rex trackway — isolated prints and juvenile or related species tracks have been found before, but never a connected series from a wandering adult.
Why it matters: Trackways give paleontologists a behavioral snapshot — speed, gait, stride — that bones alone cannot, and a confirmed adult T rex trail has eluded researchers for over a century despite extensive fossil hunting in formations like Hell Creek. With three of the four prints slated for helicopter recovery and the study now published, the physical evidence will be preserved and studied rather than lost to erosion.
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