Overview
- A four‑print tridactyl trackway exceeding seven metres and made of ~1‑metre footprints was discovered in the Hell Creek Formation and described in a Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology paper published in September 2026.
- Researchers conclude an adult Tyrannosaurus rex is the most likely maker based on print size, narrow toe impressions, and the local abundance of T. rex bones, while noting heavy surface weathering limits fine anatomical detail.
- The prints are preserved as calcium‑carbonate‑cemented sandstone concretions whose fractured surfaces retain footprint shape but little toe or pad anatomy, a taphonomic state that constrains certainty about exact foot structure.
- Field teams used high‑resolution 3D surface scanning to digitally preserve the trackway and produce models and casts, and they plan targeted fall excavations to recover and helicopter‑airlift three hardened casts to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
- The find offers a rare behavioral snapshot of large theropod locomotion with stride data that imply a walking speed of about 1.5–2.0 m/s and a roughly 4‑metre stride, and it complements skeletal records by showing how an adult T. rex moved across the Late Cretaceous landscape.