Giant Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Colorado Date Back 150 Million Years

A series of massive dinosaur footprints in Colorado date back 150 million years, and a team of scientists has announced new findings about the creature's movements.

The article in Geomatics was published on November 20. It's called, Track by Track: Revealing Sauropod Turning and Lateralised Gait at the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Tracksite. The study is led by University of Queensland paleontologist Anthony Romilio and other researchers.

• According to the researchers, they used drones and "per-step spatial analysis" to analyze a dinosaur "tracksite" in Bluff Sandstone, CO, called "Gold Hill Dinosaur Tracksite."
• The site has been known for decades. However, the new study is advancing knowledge and has led to new discoveries; for starters, the scientists determined that the "giant dinosaur" may have been limping as it left the footprints, according to Sci News.
• “This was left in the Late Jurassic when long-necked dinosaurs such as Diplodocus and Camarasaurus roamed North America,” Romilio told Sci News. “This trackway is unique because it is a complete loop.” Of the difference between left and right step length, Romilio told Sci News: “Whether that reflects a limp or simply a preference for one side is hard to say.”
• According to the University of California Museum of Paleontology, "Sauropods are a subgroup of the saurischian, or 'lizard-hipped,' dinosaurs. This group of quadrupedal (four-legged), herbivorous animals had a relatively simple body plan which varied only slightly throughout the group."

"While we may never know why this dinosaur curved back on itself, the trackway preserves an extremely rare chance to study how a giant sauropod handled a tight, looping turn before resuming its original direction of travel," Romilio told Sci News. In short, the scientists used the footprints to glean new clues about the dinosaurs.

The Colorado Site Contains Preserved Dinosaur Footprints Along an 'Exceptionally Long' Trackway, the Experts Say

The site preserves an "exceptionally long" trackway of sauropod dinosaur footprints, according to the article.

Previously, 134 dinosaur footprints were located at the site, according to the scientists, with 131 "confidently identified along a mapped path." The study isolated a "fully looped subsection."

"Unmanned aerial vehicles" are now able to record imagery from hard-to-access archeological digs.

The Colorado site "preserves an extensive trackway of more than 130 footprints attributed to a single sauropod that records a near-complete (~360°) directional change and alternating long and short steps," the article says.

The dinosaur pathway was acquired by the U.S. Forest Service in 2024 after being privately owned and "known to locals since the late 1950s," the article says. It is close to the town of Ouray, CO.

The Dinosaur Pathway Was Found Along an Area With Thick Sandstone

The material in the area helped preserve the footprints.

The track-bearing surface "is an orangish-brown, near-horizontal, approximately 5-metre-thick silicified sandstone locally referred to as the ‘Lower Quartzite,'" the article says.

The scientists studied the dinosaur footprints in great detail, including measuring their "step length," the study says.

“It was clear from the start that this animal began walking toward the northeast, completed a full loop, and then finished facing the same direction again,” Romilio told Sci News.

“Within that loop we found subtle, yet consistent, clues to its behavior.”

“One of the clearest patterns was a variation in the width between left and right footprints, shifting from quite narrow to distinctly wide.”

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