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A routine day at a limestone quarry in Oxfordshire has led to one of Britain’s most significant dinosaur discoveries in decades. Hidden beneath layers of clay, hundreds of fossilised footprints have emerged from a landscape that existed around 166 million years ago, when the region lay beside a warm, shallow lagoon rather than rolling countryside. Stretching across multiple trackways, the prints preserve the movements of giant plant-eating dinosaurs alongside one of the Jurassic’s best-known predators. Scientists believe the site could answer long-standing questions about how these animals travelled, behaved and shared their environment, with detailed digital records expected to support research for years to come.
How a British quarry revealed a 166-million-year-old dinosaur site
The footprints came to light at Dewars Farm Quarry after quarry worker Gary Johnson noticed a pattern of unusual ridges while clearing clay. According to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, specialists from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham were called in, leading to a week-long excavation involving more than 100 researchers.Around 200 footprints were uncovered across five extensive trackways dating to the Middle Jurassic, roughly 166 million years ago. The longest uninterrupted trail extends for more than 150 metres, making it the largest dinosaur footprint site yet recorded in the UK. The excavation team also captured more than 20,000 photographs. It used aerial drone surveys to create detailed three-dimensional models, allowing scientists to continue studying the site long after excavation had finished.
Dinosaurs that roamed Oxfordshire 166 million years ago
Four of the trackways are believed to have been made by enormous sauropods, most likely Cetiosaurus, a long-necked herbivore that reached about 18 metres in length. The remaining trail belongs to Megalosaurus, the carnivorous dinosaur first described by scientists in 1824 and recognised by its distinctive three-toed footprints.One section of the quarry contains tracks from both animals crossing each other. While there is no evidence that they encountered one another, the overlapping paths offer an unusual snapshot of different dinosaur species moving across the same muddy ground.Speaking to NPR, Professor Kirsty Edgar of the University of Birmingham said the environment where the animals walked was “probably lagoonal” and may have resembled “the Florida Keys today.”
How Jurassic footprints help scientists understand dinosaur behaviour
Bones can reveal what a dinosaur looked like, but footprints preserve moments from its daily life. Scientists can estimate walking speed, direction of travel, body size and, in some cases, whether animals moved together.According to the Natural History Museum, trackways are especially valuable because they capture behaviour that skeletal fossils cannot preserve. As palaeontologist Dr Susannah Maidment explained, “Trackways are important because they preserve fossilised behaviour, something that we are unable to get from the bones of an animal alone.”The Oxfordshire footprints have survived in exceptional condition. The Oxford University Museum of Natural History said researchers can even observe how soft mud shifted beneath each step. Earth scientist Dr Duncan Murdock noted that the preservation is detailed enough to see “how the mud was deformed as the dinosaur’s feet squelched in and out,” helping scientists reconstruct the ancient lagoon environment.
Why Oxfordshire was a Jurassic dinosaur hotspot
Modern Oxfordshire is known for farmland and villages, but the landscape was once part of a tropical coastline bordering a shallow sea. The muddy flats where these footprints formed were also home to other dinosaurs, early mammals, pterosaurs and marine life.The county already occupies a special place in palaeontology. According to the Natural History Museum, the first dinosaur ever formally described by science was Megalosaurus, identified from Oxfordshire fossils in 1824 by geologist William Buckland. The newly uncovered trackways strengthen evidence that both giant sauropods and large meat-eating theropods inhabited the region during the Middle Jurassic. Go to Source
