Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs
New site contains over 130 footprints and trackways up to 12-meters-long
image:
'A Hidden Place'. An artistic reconstruction of the tracksite in the Middle Jurassic, painted by Tone Blakesley and Scott Reid.
view moreCredit: Tone Blakesley and Scott Reid, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Jurassic dinosaurs milled about ancient Scottish lagoons, leaving up to 131 footprints at a newly discovered stomping ground on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, according to a study published April 2, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Tone Blakesley of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and colleagues.
In the rocks of the Isle of Skye, dinosaur footprints are abundant, providing insights into dinosaur distribution and behavior during an important time in their evolution. The footprints were left in the rippled sands of an ancient subtropical lagoon, dating back to the Middle Jurassic – approximately 167 million years ago.
The footprints range from 25-60cm long and come in two varieties: three-toed tracks left by bipedal, carnivorous theropods and rounder ‘tyre-size’ tracks made by quadrupedal, long-necked sauropods. Based on comparisons with previous fossil finds, the most likely trackmakers are identified as large theropods similar to Megalosaurus and early-branching members of the neosauropod group similar to Cetiosaurus, both of which are known from skeletal remains in the UK.
Many of these footprints occur together in sequential steps. The longest of these trackways are over 12 meters, among the longest examples known from the Isle of Skye. The spacing and orientation of these trackways represent slow walking gaits with no consistent direction or interaction with each other, most likely left by dinosaurs casually milling about at slightly different times.
This site supports previous evidence that Jurassic sauropods frequented Scottish lagoons. However, this site contains a higher proportion of theropod tracks than similar localities, possibly indicating some environmental difference between these ancient lagoons. This site also lacks footprints from other dinosaurs such as stegosaurs or ornithopods but whether these animals were truly absent in this environment or simply didn’t leave footprints at this site remains unclear.
The authors add: “The footprints at Prince Charles's Point provide fascinating insight into the behaviors and environmental distributions of meat-eating theropods and plant-eating, long-necked sauropods during an important time in their evolution. On Skye, these dinosaurs clearly preferred shallowly submerged lagoonal environments over subaerially exposed mudflats. Intriguingly, the site also has some historical significance, as a place on Skye where Bonnie Prince Charlie landed and hid during his flight across Scotland following the Battle of Culloden.”
An accompanying feature-length documentary, produced by Tone Blakesley, summarizing the research is available to watch at: https://youtu.be/ERQIEH7Epes
In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4bVUTdJ
Citation: Blakesley T, dePolo PE, Wade TJ, Ross DA, Brusatte SL (2025) A new Middle Jurassic lagoon margin assemblage of theropod and sauropod dinosaur trackways from the Isle of Skye, Scotland. PLoS ONE 20(4): e0319862. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319862
Author countries: U.K.
Funding: The PalAlba team’s work on Skye is supported by the National Geographic Society (GEFNE185-16) and a Philip Leverhulme Prize to Stephen L. Brusatte.
Digital representations of selected PC-TH-4 tracks.
Credit
Blakesley et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Journal
PLOS One
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
Animals
Article Title
A new Middle Jurassic lagoon margin assemblage of theropod and sauropod dinosaur trackways from the Isle of Skye, Scotland
Article Publication Date
2-Apr-2025
Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly
PLOS
image:
Live reconstruction of a Bonapartenykus specimen by Abel G. Montes.
view moreCredit: Meso et al. 2025, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Article URL: https://plos.io/4hxJYYP
Article title: First unambiguous record of pneumaticity in the axial skeleton of alvarezsaurians (Theropoda: Coelurosauria)
Author countries: Argentina, China
Funding: We thank P. Chafrat from Museo Patagónico de Ciencias Naturales, General Roca, Río Negro Province, Argentina. The authors gratefully acknowledge "Fundacion Patagonica de Ciencias Naturales" and "Sanatorio Juan XXIII" for making the CT images possible. MP was supported by the Faculty of Science of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. We thank Hans-Dieter Sues, an anonymous reviewer, and the editorial team of PLOS ONE for their comments which improved the quality of this manuscript.
Journal
PLOS One
Article Title
First unambiguous record of pneumaticity in the axial skeleton of alvarezsaurians (Theropoda: Coelurosauria)
Article Publication Date
2-Apr-2025
Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming
In-depth assessment indicates dozens of giant amphibians perished on an ancient floodplain
image:
A skull of Buettnererpeton bakeri “sees” the light for the first time in 230 million years. This side of the specimen was uncovered in the fossil preparation lab at the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum.
view moreCredit: Dave Lovelace, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Dozens of amphibians perished together on an ancient floodplain around 230 million years ago, according to a study published April 2, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Aaron M. Kufner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S., and colleagues.
Early in the Age of Dinosaurs, alligator-sized amphibians called metoposaurid temnospondyls were common in freshwater habitats. Several fossil sites contain large concentrations of temnospondyls buried together, but determining how these bonebeds formed is often difficult due to a lack of context or detailed examination.
In this study, Kufner and colleagues perform an in-depth assessment of a site called Nobby Knob in Dubois, Wyoming, where fossil remains of a temnospondyl called Buettnererpeton bakeri were found in rocks dating to roughly 230 million years ago. Fine-grained ancient soils and finely layered sediments indicate that these fossils were buried in a floodplain setting. Unlike similar sites, the water was evidently very calm, since even very delicate parts of the skeletons are preserved intact, and the bones aren’t arranged in any pattern that would suggest strong currents. The authors conclude that these animals may have concentrated in this area as a breeding colony or because of restricted waterways due to drought and were ultimately buried together where they died.
This assemblage represents more than of half of the known fossils of Buettnererpeton, providing an excellent opportunity for future study of the species. Whether or not this kind of die-off was common among temnospondyls is difficult to assess since few other sites have received this level of detailed examination and there is limited data regarding how temnospondyl burial varies with different environments. The authors suggest these as directions for future research.
“This assemblage is a snapshot of a single population rather than an accumulation over time” said Kufner, “that more than doubles the number of known Buettnererpeton bakeri individuals.” Whether or not this kind of die-off was common among temnospondyls is difficult to assess considering most bonebeds of this group represent accumulations that were transported from the site of death. Few other metoposaurid sites have received this level of detailed examination highlighting the importance of mapping and systematic data collection during excavation and preparation of mass mortality beds. The Nobby Knob fossil assemblage provides an excellent opportunity for future research into Late Triassic ecosystems and metoposaurid biology.
A new metoposaurid (Temnospondyli) bonebed from the lower Popo Agie Formation (Carnian, Triassic) and an assessment of skeletal sorting
Select specimens of Buettnererpeton bakeri from the Nobby Knob bonebed.
Credit
Kufner et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4bYbCNP
Citation: Kufner AM, Deckman ME, Miller HR, So C, Price BR, Lovelace DM (2025) A new metoposaurid (Temnospondyli) bonebed from the lower Popo Agie Formation (Carnian, Triassic) and an assessment of skeletal sorting. PLoS ONE 20(4): e0317325. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317325
Author countries: U.S.
Funding: A David B. Jones Foundation grant awarded to DML helped fund the excavation of this material. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Journal
PLOS One
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
Animals
Article Title
A new metoposaurid (Temnospondyli) bonebed from the lower Popo Agie Formation (Carnian, Triassic) and an assessment of skeletal sorting
Article Publication Date
2-Apr-2025
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