Dylan Bettencourt
The severe drought in Texas, USA has dried out a river, only to reveal dinosaur tracks believed to be over 113 million years old.
The tracks of the prehistoric giant lie on the river bed of the Dinosaur Valley State Park, home to some of the best preserved tracks in the world, according to park superintendent Jeff Davis.
The large footprints had been hidden by water and several layers of rock since 2000 but a recent drought has uncovered the tracks.
More than 85% of Texas experienced the most severe forms of drought last week ranging from severe to extreme and exceptional.
The recently exposed tracks are said to have belonged to a acrocanthosaurus who walked the trail for at least 30 metres, giving it the title of longest dinosaur trail in the world.
“The Paluxy River has pretty much gone dry,” said Paul Baker of the Friends of Dinosaur Valley State Park, a non-profit organisation that works with the park.
“What is cool is what you’ll find in the river. Sweep a bit of the dirt and dust away and dinosaur tracks are what you’ll find. You will see claw marks from a pretty good-sized theropod. These are awesome, awesome tracks. And these are normally underwater. You don’t usually get to see these,” he said.
The animal behind the tracks, known for its tall spine, left around 140 tracks across the world with 60 being visible at the moment.
The acrocanthosaurus, a distant cousin of the tyrannosaurus rex, was one of the larger dinosaurs with some weighing in at around 4 tonnes with a height of 11 metres.
Park staff and volunteers worked quickly to ensure the tracks were mapped and monitored before being buried again by water.
“The park will continue to protect these 113-million-year-old tracks not only for present but future generations,” a spokesperson for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department told reporters.
Image source: @TheTimes
