Dinosaur tracks from hundreds of millions of years ago have been spotted at Dinosaur Valley State Park due to drought according to a CNN article. They say,
“Dinosaur tracks from around 113 million years ago have been revealed at Dinosaur Valley State Park in Texas due to severe drought conditions that dried up a river, the park said Monday in a statement.
“Most tracks that have recently been uncovered and discovered at different parts of the river in the park belong to Acrocanthosaurus. This was a dinosaur that would stand, as an adult, about 15 feet tall and (weigh) close to seven tons,” park spokesperson Stephanie Salinas Garcia told CNN in an email.”
The opportunity to see these tracks was brought about by the record-breaking drought this year according to a Dallas Morning News article which reports,
“We have a rare opportunity now to observe tracks that are usually under mud and water,” Kuban, an independent dinosaur track researcher, told The Dallas Morning News on a sweltering summer day in Dinosaur Valley State Park, about 80 miles southwest of Dallas.
“That opportunity was created by this year’s record-breaking drought. As heat waves kept temperatures in the triple digits for weeks and a rain-free streak spanned more than two months, the U.S. Drought Monitor said Somervell County, where the park sits, was experiencing “exceptional” drought — the most severe classification. In a silver lining of sorts, most of the park’s main riverbed dried out, bringing at least 45 never-before-seen tracks to light.”
The park superintendent and caretakers do what they can to preserve the tracks for as long as possible, but eventually the river will wash all of it away.
Leave a Reply