Overview
- Lombardy officials announced thousands of footprints spanning multiple ridges in Stelvio National Park between Bormio and Livigno.
- Researchers date the trackways to roughly 200–210 million years and identify them as prosauropod based on four-toed impressions and clear claw marks up to about 40 centimeters wide.
- Parallel and overlapping trails indicate synchronized herd movement and possible circular group gatherings interpreted as complex social behavior.
- The prints occur on steep dolomite faces at more than 2,000 meters because Alpine uplift tilted former Tethys tidal flats, leaving many exposures snow-covered and difficult to access.
- Teams are mapping the site with drones and remote sensing after nature photographer Elio Della Ferrera’s September discovery, and experts describe it as the largest tracksite in the Alps and among the richest worldwide.