Texas floods unearth 100 million-year-old dinosaur tracks

The deadly floods that tore through Texas in early July and swept away the layers of sediments have led to the groundbreaking discovery of 100 million year old dinosaur tracks in Travis County.

The discovery came to the fore when a volunteer helped residents of the Sandy Creek area in clearing the debris as the water receded.

Suddenly, the volunteer spotted the 15 large, three clawed dinosaur footprints that were scattered in crisscross patterns.

According to Mathew Brown, a palaeontologist at the University of Texas, “The tracks that are unambiguously dinosaur were left by carnivorous dinosaurs similar to Acrocanthosaurus, a roughly 35-foot-long bipedal carnivore.”

Brown also confirmed that the tracks are 110 to 150 million years old. The length of tracks is around 18 to 20 inches.

Waterways like the Sandy Creek cut through the Glen Rose Formation limestone, which is the rock layer that bears the tracks and is about 110 million years old which give insights into the age of dinosaur tracks that are preserved in rock layers that are that old,” Brown added.

Brown and his team are expected to document tracks more comprehensively by using 3D imaging and maps.

Dinosaur Valley State Park which is home to numerous dinosaur tracks, is located a little under 200 miles north of Travis County. These tracks are imprinted by sauropods and theropods who lived in the area 113 million years ago.