The largest collection of rare dinosaur tracks ever discovered in Scotland could help experts learn more about some of the largest land-creatures ever to roam the Earth, according to new research published in Tuesday’s edition of the Scottish Journal of Geology.

In the study, Dr. Steve Brusatte from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Geosciences and his colleagues report on the discovery of hundreds of footprints and handprints left behind by a group of plant-eating sauropods some 170 million years ago at the Isle of Skye.

These long-necked dinosaurs, which include species such as Brontosaurus and Diplodocus, are among the biggest creatures of their kind—and the tracks found at Skye belonged to early distant relatives believed to be more than 15 meters long and weigh at least 10 metric tons.

The tracks were identified in layers of rock that would have been at the bottom of a shallow, salt-water lagoon at the time when the prints were made. They are the first sauropod tracks ever to be found in Scotland, which previously had only been home to bone and tooth fragments.

Prints reveal that the dinosaurs traveled through the water

“Believe it or not, Scotland is one of the only places in the world where you can find dinosaur fossils from the middle part of the Jurassic Period,” Dr. Brusatte told redOrbit via email. “We know that a lot of interesting things were happening in dinosaur evolution during this time – the first tyrannosaurs and plate-backed stegosaurs were evolving, birds were probably first taking to the skies, and the long-necked plant-guzzling sauropods were becoming even more colossal in size. But it’s hard to understand exactly what is going on when you have so few fossils.”

The newly-discovered footprints were created by “fairly large dinosaurs”, he added, noting that the biggest of the footprints are 70 centimeters in diameter. They also revealed that the dinosaurs were still fairly primitive compared to later sauropods, and since the prints were discovered in an ancient lagoon, they reveal that the creatures were either living in the lagoon or at the very least often travelled through it. This is a big shock, as they were thought to be exclusively land dwellers.

“They would have been walking in shallow water when they made the tracks,” Dr. Brusatte said. “And it wasn’t just a one-off: there are at least three layers of lagoon-dwelling sauropod tracks at the site, so it seems like these sauropods were habitually returning to the lagoons. The lagoons were a big part of their home… We don’t know why – maybe the lagoons provided a ready source of food, or protection from predators. But I think with more discoveries like these we’ll find out.”

He added that he was “really excited” about the find, which he discovered this past April along with colleague Dr. Tom Challands, a paleontologist from the Edinburgh School of Geosciences. They were working in the northern part of the Isle of Skye when they first spotted what he called a “weird pothole in the rocks”, followed by several more of them in a zigzag pattern. “We knew right away this was the biggest dinosaur site ever found in Scotland,” Dr. Brusatte said.

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Feature Image: Jon Hoad

Story Image: Steve Brusatte

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