New dinosaur tracks from 113 million years ago revealed by Texas drought

A searing Texas drought has again uncovered prehistoric dinosaur footprints in a dried river bed.

Multiple tracks belonging to two different species of dinosaur — dating back 113 million years ago — were recently discovered at Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, about 80 miles southwest of Dallas.

Although the park is known for dinosaur tracks, the new ones are typically covered with water and sediment from the Paluxy River and are not visible. So far, volunteer researchers have identified roughly 75 new dinosaur tracks in the dried river bed, park superintendent Jeff Davis said.

“It has been another very hot, very dry year so our researchers are trying to take advantage of the drought,” Davis said. “This is not normal for us. Normally, this would all be underwater.”

This marks the second consecutive year a drought has exposed new dinosaur tracks in the state park. Somervell County, home to the park, is experiencing a severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Last year, it experienced an exceptional drought, the most severe classification.

Dinosaur footprints are not this summer’s only drought-related discovery. This month, a jet skier stumbled on a tangle of wrecked ships from World War I at the bottom of the Neches River in East Texas.

Videos posted to social media by the park show volunteers brushing away dried silt and dirt to reveal the hidden prints. The dinosaurs would have left their footprints in sediment, which eventually hardened into what is now limestone.

The three-toed tracks likely belonged to an Acrocanthosaurus, which resembled a Tyrannosaurus rex. The 15-foot-tall predator weighed roughly 14,000 pounds.

The second tracks likely belonged to a long-necked Sauropodseiden, which could reach more than 100 feet tall and 88,000 pounds. Sauropodseiden is the official state dinosaur of Texas.

Uncovering dinosaur tracks has helped researchers learn more about dinosaurs’ day-to-day lives, like how they walked and interacted. For example, the tracks have revealed details about the dinosaurs’ posture, the speed they traveled and whether they walked in herds.

The tracks will not remain indefinitely, Davis said. They will be reburied and filled with sediment after a good rain or two, which helps prevent them from eroding away. Eventually, though, the tracks will fully erode.

Before that happens, researchers map the tracks, take photographs, measurements and molds. Dinosaur tracks excavated from the Paluxy River in 1938 are on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

“These won’t be here forever,” Davis said. “We do whatever we can to preserve these pieces of history.”