Dating to some 190 million years ago, the site contains more than 1,000 tracks in what was likely a watery oasis amidst what was then an environment that rivaled the Sahara desert. Found in a protected area of Vermilion Cliffs National Monument nestled in tall, wind-whipped sand dunes, the footprints will help researchers figure out how dinosaurs survived in a "vast, dry, uninhabitable desert," Marjorie Chan, professor of geology at the University of Utah and one of the authors of a new study of the site, told AP. "Maybe it really wasn't as lifeless as we think," she added.
So far, four kinds of tracks have been identified, but the specific species are not yet known. Some measure 16 inches across and have three toes and a heel, while others are smaller and more circular. In some places the footprints are so dense there are a dozen in a square yard. "It was a place that attracted a crowd, kind of like a dance floor," Chan quipped to AP. The area also includes what scientists think are rare tail drag marks. They think the area was a popular spot for old and young dinosaurs, who likely stopped there for a bit of refreshment before moving on.
Winston Seiler, who studied the site for a master's thesis, told AP he imagines the dinosaurs were "happy to be at this place, having wandered up and down many a sand dune, exhausted from the heat and the blowing sand, relieved and happy to come to a place where there was water." The study's findings were published in the October issue of the science journal Palaios.
