Palaeontology

First ever adult Tyrannosaurus rex footprints discovered in North Dakota

By T.K. Randall
September 13, 2026

Image: Tyrannosaurus Rex Holotype
Credit: ScottRobertAnselmo / CC BY-SA 3.0 (adapted) There are few dinosaurs as widely studied and debated as Tyrannosaurus rex - a ferocious Cretaceous-era predator with a name that literally translates to 'tyrant lizard'.

While palaeontologists have previously discovered several fossilised skeletons of these huge animals, examples of their footprints have been lacking.

Now, though, researchers from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Colorado and the UK's Liverpool John Moores University have confirmed the finding of the first known series of fossilised Tyrannosaurus rex footprints at the Hell Creek Formation in North Dakota.

Each of the tracks measures 3ft in length and the creature's stride length was 13ft.When it made the prints, the dinosaur was moving at an average human walking pace.

"Bones tell us an enormous amount about these animals, but footprints capture a moment of behavior," said Denver Museum's Tyler Lyson.

"With a trackway, we can actually follow an animal as it moved across the landscape."

"That is incredibly rare for T rex."


Source: The Guardian

Tags: Tyrannosaurus, Dinosaur