Dinosaur Tracks Dating Back 166 Million Years Unearthed

A worker digging up clay in a southern England limestone quarry noticed unusual bumps that led to the discovery of a “dinosaur highway” and nearly 200 tracks that date back 166 million years, researchers said on Thursday.

The extraordinary find made after a team of more than 100 people excavated the Dewars Farm Quarry, in Oxfordshire, seen at left, in June expands upon previous paleontology work in the area and offers more insights into the Middle Jurassic period, said researchers at the universities of Oxford and Birmingham.

Four of the sets of tracks show paths taken by gigantic, long-necked, herbivores called sauropods, thought to be Cetiosaurus, a dinosaur that grew to nearly 60 feet long. A fifth set belonged to the Megalosaurus, a predator that left a triple-claw print and was the first dinosaur to be scientifically named two centuries ago.

—Associated Press