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3w ago

131 Dinosaur Footprints Uncovered on Isle of Skye Offer Rare Middle Jurassic Insights

The newly documented tracks reveal how carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs coexisted in a subtropical lagoon 167 million years ago.

This illustration shows a meat-eating dinosaur (right) from the dinosaur family called megalosaurs and a plant-eating dinosaur (left) from a dinosaur clade called sauropods mingling at a shallow freshwater lagoon environment on Scotland's Isle of Skye about 167 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. Tone Blakesley and Scott Reid/Handout via REUTERS
A pair of fossilized footprints left by meat-eating dinosaurs from the dinosaur family called megalosaurs are seen at Prince Charles Point on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, in this undated photo released on April 2, 2025. Paige E. de Polo/Handout via REUTERS
A 167-million-year-old dinosaur trackway at Prince Charles’s Point on the Isle of Skye. Image credit: Blakesley et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0319862.
Dinosaur footprints dating back about 167 million years have been discovered on Skye

Overview

  • Researchers have identified 131 dinosaur footprints at Prince Charles’s Point on the Isle of Skye, preserved in rippled sandstone from 167 million years ago.
  • The tracks include prints from megalosaurs, a theropod related to T. rex, and large sauropods, providing evidence of their coexistence around freshwater lagoons.
  • The site offers a rare glimpse into the Middle Jurassic period, a poorly represented era in the fossil record, shedding light on dinosaur behavior and environmental preferences.
  • The footprints were analyzed using photogrammetry, creating detailed 3D models from drone-captured images, enabling precise study of their size, gait, and speed.
  • This discovery ties prehistoric life to Scottish history, as the site is also where Bonnie Prince Charlie hid in 1746 during his flight from British troops.