US EditionScientists Document over 16,000 Footprints in the World’s Most Extensive Dinosaur Tracksite
The Carreras Pampa site holds 16,600 three-toed and 1,378 swim tracks, providing rare insights into theropod behavior and ecology, researchers reported.
- On Dec. 3, researchers reported nearly 18,000 dinosaur tracks at the Carreras Pampa tracksite in Torotoro National Park, Bolivia, the highest number recorded at a single site in a paper published in PLOS One.
- The site formed along a shallow freshwater lake on the eastern flank of the Andes with carbonate-rich substrate that was soft when wet but firm when exposed, preserving deep fossil imprints intact.
- Researchers counted 16,600 three-toed theropod footprints, 1,378 swim tracks, 1,321 trackways, 289 solitary prints, 11 track types, and footprints measuring 16 to 29 centimeters.
- Because many marks erode rapidly, the authors warn urgent study is needed, while park rangers and guides protect Carreras Pampa from tourist damage.
- This discovery positions Carreras Pampa as a Lagerstätte and sets global records for tracksite abundance in the Southern Hemisphere, researchers say.
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12 Articles
18,000 dinosaur tracks discovered along ancient Bolivian coastline — and they set a new record
Researchers have counted 16,600 fossilized dinosaur footprints and 1,378 swim tracks at a site in Bolivia that showcase a variety of behaviors and different theropods from the Cretaceous period.
Fossil Site in Bolivia Records Thousands of Cretaceous Dinosaur Tracks, Tail Traces, and Swim Tracks
The Carreras Pampa site in the Torotoro National Park, Bolivia, records 1,321 trackways and 289 solitary tracks, totaling 16,600 theropod dinosaur tracks; 280 swim trackways, totaling 1,378 swim tracks; and several trackways with tail traces. The post Fossil Site in Bolivia Records Thousands of Cretaceous Dinosaur Tracks, Tail Traces, and Swim Tracks appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.
Imagine a lost shoreline, crisscrossed by dinosaurs walking, running or swimming. This landscape, frozen for 66 million years, reappears today in Carreras Pampa, where a study reveals one of the largest sets of fossilized traces in the world.
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