18,000 dinosaur tracks discovered along ancient Bolivian coastline -- and they set a new record [View all]

By Sascha Pare
published 22 hours ago

Researchers have counted 16,600 fossilized dinosaur footprints and 1,378 swim tracks at a site in Bolivia that showcase a variety of behaviors and different theropods from the Cretaceous period.



View of a palaeontology study site in Bolivia with thousands of dinosaur tracks.
With the discovery, Carreras Pampa in Bolivia has become one of the premier dinosaur track sites in the world. (Image credit: Raúl Esperante)

Scientists have discovered a record-breaking number of fossilized dinosaur footprints and swim tracks in a national park in central Bolivia.

The tracksite sits along what was once an ancient coastline, with ripple marks extending alongside the footprints and other imprints in a northwest-southeast direction, according to a new study. Most of the tracks belong to bipedal, three-toed dinosaurs known as theropods that lived at the end of the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago), but many bird tracks are also preserved, the scientists noted in the paper, which was published Wednesday (Dec. 3) in the journal PLOS One.

"This is the highest number of dinosaur footprints ever found for a single tracksite thus far," study co-author Jeremy McLarty, a paleontologist and associate professor at the Southwestern Adventist University in Texas, told Live Science in an email. "In addition to preserving the most dinosaur tracks worldwide, it also preserves the highest number of swim trackways in the world."

In total, McLarty and his colleagues counted 16,600 theropod footprints and 1,378 swim tracks. These were found in Bolivia's Carreras Pampa tracksite, which was already known but hadn't been properly studied or documented.

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