About the Tracks

What You See

The broad footprints of the right-hand trackway (the largest tracks on the bottom in the illustration above) were made by the hind feet of a sauropod dinosaur that was probably about 60 feet long, weighing 20 tons and had a hind leg stride of 10 feet. The deep, post-hole shaped prints just in front of hind tracks were made by the front feet, which were not as broad as the rear feet. These tracks were most likely made by one of two brachiosaurid sauropods, Paluxysaurus jonesi (the Texas State Dinosaur) or Sauroposeidon proteles.

A second trackway of three-toed prints was made by a theropod dinosaur, most likely Acrocanthosaurus atokensis. The theropod, walking on hind legs with a stride of about 9 feet, was perhaps 30 feet in length (the adult African elephant, for comparison, typically averages 20 feet in length). Its small forelimbs were too short to reach the ground. The theropod trackway parallels then converges on the sauropod trackway in the TMM slab, suggesting the strong possibility of the theropod stalking the sauropod.

The absence of tail-drag marks indicates that both dinosaurs held their tails aloft.

Learn more about sauropods

Learn more about theropods