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Central Texas Floodwaters Uncover 115-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Tracks

Dated to the Early Cretaceous, the tracks are set to be recorded in high-resolution 3D by drones and laser-surface scanners.

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Overview

  • July floods in Central Texas stripped sediment and brush from Big Sandy Creek, exposing massive dinosaur footprints in limestone.
  • UT Austin paleontologists have dated the trackways to roughly 110–115 million years ago and attribute them to Acrocanthosaurus and Paluxysaurus.
  • Volunteers on private property first spotted the imprints, with historical records from the 1980s matching some tracks and new ones emerging from the flood.
  • Researchers plan to deploy drones and laser-surface scanning to capture high-resolution 3D models of the footprints for behavioral and environmental analysis.
  • Scientists are inviting locals to report any uncovered fossils during extreme weather cleanup to support site preservation and future studies.