UNE PhD student Nathan Enriquez leads team documenting the 72-million-year-old tracks of Tyrants Aisle

Mr Enriquez was in charge of an international team of palaeontologists that found fossil evidence revealing the dinosaur footprints in Canada.

In northern Alberta, the team documented more than 100 dinosaur footprints.

They had been preserved within the bank of the modern-day Redwillow River, located near the city of Grande Prairie.

"We feel we have done these tracks justice, and are proud to present this special window into the lives of these fascinating animals," Mr Enriquez said.

The study, published this week, describes at least four types of dinosaur footprint from a more than 100-metre tract of the river.

Named 'Tyrants Aisle', in reference to the tyrannosaur tracks, the site occurs within a sequence of rocks called the Wapiti Formation and is the largest dinosaur tracksite yet found in this sequence.

Read also:

All of the tracks are estimated to be more than 72 million years old, and indicate that a variety of dinosaurs once traversed the ancient floodplains that existed in the area at that time.

Mr Enriquez led the study as part of an international collaboration between dinosaur researchers from UNE, the University of Alberta and the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Canada, and the University of Bologna in Italy.

"The most abundant tracks at Tyrants Aisle are those of hadrosaurs, which were large herbivorous dinosaurs that sometimes exceeded 12 metres in length and four tonnes in mass.

"The biggest of their footprints that we found measured 65 cm long, suggesting the animal was 2.6 metres tall at the hips.

"They may have acted a bit like cows, grazing on low-growing vegetation and forming herds," Mr Enriquez said.

In addition to hadrosaurs, the team identified tracks belonging to at least two varieties of carnivorous dinosaur, including two-metre-tall tyrannosaurs, likely the top predators at that time, and relatives of the 'raptors', famous for their retracted second claw, which gives them a two-toed footprint.

"The best-preserved tyrannosaur track at the site measures almost 50 cm in length and, based on the age of these rocks, was possibly produced by Albertosaurus sarcophagus, an earlier relative of T. rex," Mr Enriquez said.

The footprints are preserved across at least three different layers of rock, indicating that this area was traversed by different sets of dinosaurs for some time, possibly following the margins of an ancient river system. Ironically, in the present day, it is now the modern river that threatens the long-term existence of the tracks.

"It was important that we carefully document this site while it is still available to us," Mr Enriquez said.

"The site is submerged by the Redwillow River for much of the year and is continuously eroded. By the time we found the site, much information had already been lost.

"Sadly, the tracks will eventually be lost to time. However, our work guarantees that the information presently contained at the site will be available for generations to come and, through the use of digital technology, 3D models are now available of the most significant footprints and trackways," he said.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: