In Alaska’s famous Denali National Park, scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks have found a massive area filled with ancient dinosaur footprints!
They’ve named this special place “The Coliseum.” Imagine walking on one-and-a-half football fields – that’s how big this site is!
The exciting part?
This isn’t just one layer of old footprints. It’s many layers stacked on top of each other. So, we can see the footprints of various types of dinosaurs over a long time, almost 70 million years ago.
Dustin Stewart, who led the study, shared how unique this place is.
There are other areas in Denali where we’ve found dinosaur prints, but The Coliseum is way bigger and more impressive.
But you know what’s funny? At first, this place doesn’t look special at all. It’s just a big, rocky cliff, about 20 stories high.
Even the scientists weren’t that excited when they first saw it. But everything changed when the sun set.
As the light hit the cliff in a special way, the dinosaur tracks became very clear. The team couldn’t believe their eyes! They quickly took lots of photos, excited about their find.
A long time ago, during a period called the Late Cretaceous, this cliff was flat ground, probably near a water source.
Imagine it like a favorite hangout for dinosaurs. Over time, the ground moved and changed due to the shifting of Earth’s plates, turning the flat land into a cliff. Now, we can see those footprints like pictures on a wall.
And these aren’t just any footprints. They’re super detailed. You can even see the patterns on the dinosaurs’ skin! But that’s not all. The scientists also found remains of old plants, tiny sea creatures, and even grains of pollen.
These findings help us imagine what the area looked like back then. There were rivers, ponds, and even forests with different types of trees, ferns, and other plants.
By looking at the footprints, the scientists think many dinosaurs lived here over thousands of years. There were big herbivores (plant-eating dinosaurs) like the duck-billed and horned ones.
They also found tracks of meat-eating dinosaurs like raptors and the mighty tyrannosaurs. There were even footprints of small birds that loved to wade in the water.
Denali is a popular place for tourists today, known for its beautiful scenery. But can you imagine visiting 70 million years ago?
It would be a whole different world! Back then, massive dinosaurs roamed the park. Some were even bigger than the bears we see in Alaska today!
Keeping places like The Coliseum safe and protected is crucial. Denny Capps, a geologist at the park, believes that while people should learn about these amazing finds, we must also ensure they remain undisturbed for future generations.
Dr. Pat Druckenmiller, who also worked on the study, is very excited about these discoveries.
He plans to continue exploring Denali with his team, hoping to find even more secrets from the time of the dinosaurs. With so many tracks and fossils, who knows what they’ll discover next?
The study was published in Historical Biology.
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