Glen Rose Formation

Texas

The first sauropod footprints ever scientifically documented were found in a Texas riverbed, and some are three feet across.

In 1938, Roland T. Bird was working for the American Museum of Natural History when he found tracks in the Paluxy River near the town of Glen Rose. A dozen sauropod trackways, plus four made by meat eaters, all heading the same general direction. Nobody had ever scientifically documented sauropod footprints before. Some of the prints are about three feet across. They were pressed into what was probably a tidal flat or lagoon, in rock roughly a hundred and ten million years old. Crews cut out large slabs and shipped them off, and pieces are now on display in New York and in Austin. The animal that left the big tracks ran thirty to fifty feet long. For years the story went that the meat eaters were stalking the herd, and that one sauropod trail vanished because it was killed. Scientists mostly reject that now. One researcher put it plainly. The theropods may or may not have been stalking, but they certainly were not attacking.

Wayside reads this to you as you drive past, timed to arrive before the place does. Plan a route through here.

What this was written from
These were the first sauropod footprints scientifically documented, and were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1969.

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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