Fossil hunters find a new dinosaur track site on South Africa’s coast – the youngest so far

Youngest dinosaur tracks ever discovered in Southern Africa unearthed in Knysna

A small stretch of rocky shoreline near Knysna has revealed the youngest dinosaur tracks ever recorded in Southern Africa, shedding new light on the region’s prehistoric past. The discovery was made by a team of ichnologists, scientists who study fossil tracks and traces, during fieldwork along the Western Cape coast in early 2025. The dinosaur tracks are estimated to be about 132 million years old, dating to the early Cretaceous Period. This ma…

Youngest dinosaur tracks ever discovered on South African coastline

Newly discovered tracks reveal the animals survived far longer in the region than previously believed

Fossil hunters find a new dinosaur track site on South Africa’s coast – the youngest so far

Southern Africa is world renowned for its fossil record of creatures that lived in the very distant past, including dinosaurs. But, about 182 million years ago, a huge eruption of lava covered much of the landscape (the inland Karoo Basin) where most of the dinosaurs roamed. After that, the dinosaur fossil record in the region goes abruptly quiet for the Jurassic Period (which lasted from 201 million to 145 million years ago). Two exciting recen…