The Paluxy River in Dinosaur Valley National Park in Texas has dried up due to warm temperatures and lack of rainfall, exposing dinosaur footprints that are 110 million years old.
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It was a group of volunteers who discovered these giant footprints, which a park director described as a “treasure,” CNN reports.
“It’s exciting to see something no one has seen before,” says Paul Barker. I thought I had seen all the dinosaur tracks, but given the droughts of the last two years and the hard work of our volunteers, it is incredible.”
Paul Baker/CNN
Park experts determined that these tracks came from an Acrocanthosaurus, a carnivorous bipedal predator thought to weigh seven tons, and a Sauroposeidon, a giant herbivore that could have been up to 18 meters tall and weighed 44 tons.
“It’s important to point out that the drought doesn’t magically make the tracks appear in great condition,” expert Glen Kuban, who has worked at the park for more than 40 years, tells CNN. It sometimes takes several weeks until the marks are properly lightened.”
Paul Baker/CNN
This site, about an hour south of Dallas, has seen several dinosaur-related discoveries made in recent years.
Mr. Kuban also organized the cleaning and mapping of North America’s longest dinosaur track in the park last year, with more than 130 footprints.