A 'dinosaur highway' unearthed in England was most pivotal find in 25 years. What's next?

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In 2023, a worker at a limestone quarry in southeast England came across some unusual bumps while stripping back clay with his vehicle to expose the quarry floor.

Because the quarry is located in an area famed among paleontologists as a hotbed for evidence of dinosaur activity, the experts were called in. Not long after, it was determined that those strange bumps were in fact hundreds of dinosaur footprints buried for millions of years beneath layers of mud.

The footprints, which date back to 166 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic Period, form multiple massive trackways that researchers call a "dinosaur highway." In June, researchers and volunteers from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham excavated the site, and what they found, they said, represents the most significant dinosaur track discovery for more than 25 years in the United Kingdom.

"These footprints offer an extraordinary window into the lives of dinosaurs, revealing details about their movements, interactions, and the tropical environment they inhabited," said Kirsty Edgar, a micropalaeontology professor at the University of Birmingham who worked on the discovery site, in a statement.

Though it's unclear what will become of the site itself, the 200 footprints the team unearthed were built into detailed 3D models for future research. The excavation itself is also now the subject of a BBC broadcast, available to stream in the U.S.

Here's everything to know about the unearthed "dinosaur highway," and what may be next for paleontologists.

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Tracks of 2 dinosaurs found in Oxfordshire

Scientists were able to date the tracks to the middle of the Jurassic Period, around 166 million years ago. During that time, Oxfordshire was below a warm tropical sea with shallow lagoons separated by mudflats.

The tracks are so ancient that they well precede the end of the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago when a massive asteroid slammed into Earth. That huge space rock, known as the Chicxulub impactor, is widely believed to have ended the reign of non-avian dinosaurs, altering the planet's climate and paving the way for mammals to rise from the proverbial ashes.

But before the dino apocalypse, the creatures were thought to be abundant in what's now the United Kingdom.

The five trails researchers uncovered may just be the tip of the iceberg in an area where dinosaurs were thought to once roam in high numbers. The longest of the trackways extended for more than 150 meters, or nearly 500 feet.

Four sets of tracks were made by a gigantic herbivorous species known as sauropods, a family of dinosaurs closely related to the Diplodocus, according to the researchers.

The Brontosaurus and Brachiosaurus are perhaps the most famous of the sauropods – dinosaurs defined by their long necks, long tails, small heads and four pillar-like legs. But these particular sauropods are believed to be from a family known as the Cetiosaurus, whose name means "whale lizard."

A fifth set of tracks was left, the researchers believe, by a Megalosaurus. The 30-foot-tall carnivorous theropod was a fearsome predator with three-toed claws who walked on two hind legs and resembled something similar to a Velociraptor.

The Megalosaurus also has the distinction of being the first dinosaur to be scientifically named and described in 1824.

"Scientists have known about and been studying Megalosaurus for longer than any other dinosaur on Earth," said Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate paleontologist and collections manager at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, in a statement. "And yet these recent discoveries prove there is still new evidence of these animals out there, waiting to be found."

One area of the site even shows the tracks converging, leaving scientists to wonder if the carnivores and herbivores interacted during their travels.

How did the dinosaur tracks survive for so long?

Footprints are ephemeral in nature, meaning the forces of nature often wipe their existence away.

But in this case, fortuitous circumstances preserved the dinosaur tracks for millions of years for the fossil record, Richard Butler, a palaeobiologist at the University of Birmingham who helped lead the excavation, told Paste BN.

"Something unusual must have happened to preserve these tracks," Butler said. "It’s likely that relatively soon after the tracks were made, there was a storm that buried them with sediment before they could be eroded by tides."

Geological excavation takes place in June

The new tracks were discovered in 2023 in the base of the active Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, England within limestone.

A team of more than 100 scientists, volunteers and students from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford University and the University of Birmingham then conducted a week-long dig in June 2024. Quarry operators provided assistance during the excavation, including specialized equipment such as excavators and rock saws.

Discovery connects to footprints found in 1997

As it happens, the new footprints aren't the first prehistoric discovery in the area.

In 1997, previous limestone quarrying revealed more than 40 sets of footprints, with some trackways extending for nearly 600 feet. The find was a groundbreaking discovery at the time, lending insight into the types of dinosaurs who roamed in the United Kingdom during the Jurassic Period.

But the original site is now largely inaccessible – with much of it buried through planned restoration. And because the find predated the advent of digital cameras and drones, limited photographic evidence remains for paleontologists to study further.

3D model created of site, but what of plans to preserve it?

This time around, scientists were also able to combine more than 20,000 pictures gleaned from drones and conventional photography to create 3D models of the site.

"These will provide a wealth of material for further study and education and could yield valuable insights into how these dinosaurs walked, including speeds, how large they were, and if and how they interacted," the researchers said in a statement.

Because Dewars Farm is still a working quarry, there is no public access to the area, Butler said. However, he added in a statement to Paste BN that researchers are working with the quarry operators on plans to preserve the site.

"There is much more that we can learn from this site, which is an important part of our national Earth heritage,"  Butler said in a statement. "Our 3D models will allow researchers to continue to study and make accessible this fascinating piece of our past for generations to come."

How to watch BBC series on expedition

The excavation was filmed for a BBC documentary series, "Digging for Britain," that premiered Wednesday. The series is available to stream on iPlayer.

The findings of the dig will also be highlighted in an exhibition "Breaking Ground" at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History

This story was updated to fix a typo.

Contributing: Mary Walrath-Holdridge, Paste BN

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for Paste BN. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com