Texas Drought Uncovers 113 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Footprints

Droughts ravaged Texas this summer, drying up rivers and frying the soil.

But the intense heat has had one advantage: it has allowed us to see a long-dead Texan from 113 million years ago.

Prehistoric remains are frequently discovered in Dinosaur Valley State Park outside Dallas, as the name suggests. However, the footprints of one dinosaur, an Acrocanthosaurus, were previously unavailable to archeologists due to their location near the Paluxy River's bottom.

vt.

However, because of the drought, which is supposedly the worst in the region in over 1,200 years, the Paluxy has just dried up, revealing the Acrocanthosaurus tracks. The Acrocanthosaurus, a relative of Tyrannosaurus Rex, was a 15-foot-tall apex predator that lived around 113 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous epoch.

Daily Mail

Videos of the tracks reveal three massive toes stretched out from the heel, similar to a T-Rex's footprint. According to Park Superintendent Jeff Davis, the freshly discovered footprints are known as the "Lone Ranger trackway" and belong to a single dinosaur traversed the trail for around 100 feet.

Stephanie Salinas Garcia of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department told dry weather made the tracks visible.

"Due to the excessive drought conditions this past summer, the river dried up completely in most locations, allowing for more tracks to be uncovered here in the park. Under normal river conditions, these newer tracks are under water and are commonly filled in with sediment, making them buried and not as visible," Ms Garcia said.

INQUIRER.net

According to the state park's website, the first tracks were discovered there in 1909. Though the site is now roughly 70 miles outside of Dallas, it was on the edge of an ocean and covered in soft mud that was ideal for preserving dinosaur tracks during the Early Cretaceous period.

INQUIRER.net

Meanwhile, the Acrocanthosaurus whose footprints were discovered near the Paluxy's base was most likely not the only one of its kind to roam the park.

Most of the tracks discovered there are from theropods (such as Acrocanthosaurus and T-Rex), but there is also proof of sauropods such as the Brontosaurus.

Jason Pulley / Alamy

The footprints are probably not the only sunken treasure discovered by the ongoing 'megadrought' in the southwest of the United States, which according to a recent study is the driest period in the region in over 1,200 years.

All Canada Photos / Alamy

According to The Independent, five sets of human remains and a WWII-era boat have been discovered in Lake Mead, the United States' largest reservoir, as water levels drop owing to dry conditions.

"While they will soon be buried again by the rain and the river, Dinosaur Valley State Park will continue to protect these 113 million-year-old tracks not only for the present but future generations," Ms. Garcia said.

Daily Mail