Overview
- The PLOS One paper documents 16,600 theropod footprints at Toro Toro plus 1,378 swim traces, which the authors report as the highest count recorded anywhere.
- All tracks lie on a single end‑Cretaceous surface interpreted as a shoreline corridor, supporting the study’s proposal of a regional dinosaur route likened to an ancient superhighway.
- Impressions range from chicken‑sized prints to marks attributed to animals roughly 10 meters tall, preserving behaviors such as walking, running, sharp turns and swimming attempts.
- Despite the vast trackways, researchers note a near absence of bones at the site, consistent with a transit pathway rather than a long‑term habitat.
- Decades of farming and quarrying plus a highway tunneling episode two years ago have damaged exposures, spurring national‑park oversight and ongoing mapping with more tracks likely at the margins.