Nature
PUBLISHED
7
Over 150 million years ago, a sauropod took a walk through an area that would later become part of Colorado. Now, you can see the evidence it left behind in stunning new drone footage that captures the world’s longest continuous dinosaur trackway.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Famed for its wealth of dinosaur fossils, Colorado is already a paleontologist’s dream – but the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Track site near Ouray is particularly special. Found at an altitude of around 2,835 meters (9,300 feet), the site is a 96.3-meter (316-foot) long stretch of 134 consecutive dinosaur footprints dating back to the Late Jurassic.
The footprints are thought to have been made by a sauropod: long-necked, thick-legged dinosaurs that would persist until that pesky asteroid came along.
While it’s not the largest dinosaur track site in the US – that title belongs to the one at Picket Wire Canyon Trail, also in Colorado – West Gold Hill is in fact the longest known continuous set of dinosaur footprints in the world.
Not only that, but as can be seen in the new drone footage, the site also shows evidence of a sharp turn; the sauropod had walked north for around 45 meters (148 feet), before making a 180° turn to the south, walking for around 15 meters (49 feet) before turning to the east and continuing until the tracks end. Maybe it thought it left something at home, maybe it was just indecisive – guess we’ll never know.
What we do know is that such evidence is rare; there are just six other known examples of sauropod turning in the entire world, found in the US and China, and only one of them demonstrates a similarly sharp turn.
If you’d like to catch a glimpse of this special site in real life and not just in drone footage, we have good news – as of April 2024, the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Track site is now public land.
It used to belong to the Charles family, who had owned the site since 1945, but had no idea that the holes in the ground were in fact dinosaur footprints until 2021 – their dogs had been using the footprints as a resting spot.
After that, the family approached the US Forest Service to see if it would be interested in taking on the land so that it could be preserved and enjoyed by the public, and a successful deal was made.
"By preserving these fossilized imprints, we are not only safeguarding a valuable scientific resource,” said Jim Pitts, Acting Forest Supervisor for Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forests, in a statement, “but also creating an incredible opportunity for the public to connect with the distant past, inspiring curiosity, education and stewardship."
