Reading Dinosaur Trackways
Use dinosaur trackways (fossilised footprints) to make inferences about a dinosaur's size, speed, and behaviour: widely spaced prints suggest running, closely spaced suggest walking
What a learner can do afterwards
- Explain that larger footprints generally mean a larger dinosaur
- Compare spacing between prints to infer walking versus running
- Suggest what a set of parallel trackways might mean (e.g. dinosaurs travelling in a group)
1 · Read
A dinosaur trackway is a trail of footprints turned to stone. A dinosaur once walked through soft mud, and that mud hardened into rock over millions of years. Scientists read these prints like clues to learn about the dinosaur that made them.
The size of a footprint is one clue. A print as long as your hand might belong to a small dinosaur. A print as long as your whole body probably belongs to a giant one.
Mia found a trackway at the museum. The footprints were spread far apart, almost like giant hops. She guessed the dinosaur was moving fast, maybe chasing something or running away.
If you spot several trackways side by side, all heading the same direction, that could mean a group of dinosaurs travelled together, like a herd.
Footprint size hints at how big a dinosaur was, and the space between footprints hints at whether it walked or ran.
More to read
Answers to Exploration Questions: How do scientists study dinosaurs?
Scientists want to know if dinosaurs walked alone or moved together in groups. How can they find out without a time machine? They look at trackways.
A trackway is a long line of footprints left in soft mud a very long time ago. Over millions of years, that mud turned to stone, so the footprints stayed put.
Big footprints usually mean a big dinosaur made them, while small prints mean a smaller one. Prints packed close together mean the dinosaur was walking, but prints spaced far apart mean it was running fast.
By studying a trackway, scientists can tell if just one dinosaur walked by or if many dinosaurs walked side by side. They can even count how many dinosaurs left tracks together and figure out what kind of dinosaur made them.
So next time you see a row of matching footprints, remember: those old prints are like a diary the dinosaur left behind in the mud.
2 · Watch
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Where it sits
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Where this leads
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