Overview

• The newly mapped trail stretches about 220 metres at Dewars Farm Quarry near Bicester and dates to roughly 166 million years ago.
• A week-long 2025 excavation co-led by Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the University of Birmingham documented hundreds of prints across four trackways.
• Most impressions were made by large sauropods likely including Cetiosaurus, with a smaller number of three‑toed tracks attributed to the carnivorous Megalosaurus.
• Drone surveys and 3D models enabled stride measurements that suggest a walking speed of about 4–5 mph and an estimated hip height near 4 metres for the track-making sauropod.
• The surface offers evidence that tens of animals moved through the area at roughly the same time, and while quarrying exposed the layer, the prints are being reburied as analyses continue and public access remains off the table for now.