A 66-million-year-old dinosaur highway in Bolivia reveals more than 16,000 fossil footprints from the final days of the dinosaurs
Where is the 66-million-year-old dinosaur highway? Why are scientists calling it a dinosaur highway? More than 16,000 footprints reveal an ancient world More than 16,600
Where is the 66-million-year-old dinosaur highway? Why are scientists calling it a dinosaur highway? More than 16,000 footprints reveal an ancient world More than 16,600 theropod footprints 1,321 continuous trackways 289 isolated footprints Around 280 swimming trackways More than 1,300 swimming claw marks Numerous tail drag impressions Fossilised bird footprints preserved alongside the dinosaur tracks Who left these footprints? Evidence of walking, swimming and changing direction Why is the site around 66 million years old? Why are footprints as important as dinosaur bones? Why is Carreras Pampa considered one of the world's most important dinosaur sites? Millions of years before roads connected modern cities, dinosaurs were already following well-worn routes across ancient landscapes. A remarkable fossil site in central Bolivia has preserved this prehistoric movement in extraordinary detail. Scientists have documented more than 16,000 dinosaur footprints at the Carreras Pampa tracksite in Torotoro Park, making it the world's largest known concentration of dinosaur tracks from a single sedimentary layer. Dating back around 66 million years to the final chapter of the Cretaceous Period, the site offers a rare glimpse into how dinosaurs moved, hunted and interacted shortly before the mass extinction that brought the Age of Dinosaurs to an end.The fossil tracksite is located at Carreras Pampa inside Torotoro Park in central Bolivia.
The park has long been recognised for its rich collection of dinosaur fossils, but Carreras Pampa stands out because it preserves an enormous ancient walking surface rather than skeletal remains.The exposed track-bearing rock covers approximately 7,485 square metres and has been divided into nine separate study sectors.Researchers believe the area was once a muddy shoreline bordering shallow lakes or coastal wetlands, where soft sediments captured dinosaur footprints before hardening into stone over millions of years.Although "dinosaur highway" is not an official geological term, researchers use it to describe the extraordinary concentration of trackways crossing the same ancient landscape.Many of the footprints travel in similar directions, suggesting that dinosaurs repeatedly used the same natural corridor while moving along the shoreline. Much like modern animals follow migration routes or established trails, these prehistoric creatures appear to have travelled across the area over an extended period, leaving behind thousands of overlapping footprints.The international research team documented an astonishing collection of trace fossils, including:Together, these discoveries make Carreras Pampa the largest known dinosaur footprint site ever documented from a single sedimentary surface.Most of the tracks were made by theropods, a group of mostly meat-eating dinosaurs that walked on two legs and three toes.
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