A worker digging up clay in an English limestone quarry discovered a “dinosaur highway” made up of 200 tracks dating back 166 million years. The Oxfordshire footprints include a mix of footprints from both herbivores and at least one carnivore. Most dinosaur toes pointed northward.
So just who were these creatures, where were they heading and why were they going there?
At least four sets of tracks were likely made by the long-necked herbivores Cetiosaurus, a dinosaur that grew to nearly 60 feet long. Another set looks like the distinctive three-toed feet of the Megalosaurus, a 30-foot-long predator. One stretch shows the carnivore and herbivore tracks crossing, raising questions about whether and how the two were interacting.
Richard J. Butler, paleontologist at the University of Birmingham, who worked at the site, applied some deductive reasoning to pinpoint the dinos’ intentions.
“Most of the tracks seem to be heading in the ...
