By MINDY POEHL | Central Texas Edition

A footprint from a therapod dinosaur, which is a 3-toed meat-eater, an ancestor to the Tyrranosaurus rex, lies beside the Paluxy River at the Dinosaur Valley State Park. — Photos by Ty Stepp

May 18, 2006 - Huge tracks of dinosaur footprints from over 113 million years ago are located just outside of Glen Rose at Dinosaur Valley State Park. The park consists of 1,524 acres along the Paluxy River, with eastward-dipping limestones, sandstones and mudstones deposited from the shorelines of an ancient sea that once covered the park area.

Over the last million years, these layered stones have been eroded by the Paluxy River and has cut down to resistant beds, revealing the dinosaur prints.

The first tracks that were discovered in 1903 were therapod tracks, which are the 3-toed tracks that belong to a 2-legged meat eater  that is an ancestor to the Tyrannosaurus.

It wasn't until 1939 that the other sauropod tracks were found by R.T. Bird. Bird worked for the Museum of National History in New York and he is the one who discovered the tracks at Dinosaur Valley State Park, explained Billy Baker, park manager.

“We (the park) are noticed for the sauropod tracks,” said Baker. “A sauropod is a 4-legged, long-necked plant eater, like a Brontosaurus. The tracks are given a scientific name like the dinosaurs have.”

The sauropod prints belong to a dinosaur twice the size of a bull African elephant, said Baker.

“The print has five claws,” explained Baker. “The hind foot looks like the foot of a sea turtle. The front prints look like an elephant.”

The original environment in which the tracks were made is thought to be a lagoon along the margin of a large shallow sea. The therapod dinosaurs may have come to feed on other dinosaurs or shore animals, while the sauropods, whose tracks consistently occur in parallel trails, may have been on a migratory trek. 

Shortly after the dinosaurs left their tracks in the moist limy mud, the track surfaces were buried with a sediment, where they hardened and remained buried through geologic time. They were finally re-exposed in modern times when overlying layers were removed by the action of the Paluxy river.

 The park is a great place to view the fossilized dinosaur footprints, and it is also a wonderful place to hike, camp, picnic, fish, swim, and enjoy beautiful scenery and wildlife. 

“This is a very well used state park. Our campsite is usually full every weekend, so if you stay here, I suggest making reservations,” said Baker. “The optimum viewing of the tracks is September through October.”

The park also boasts two fiberglass models of a 70-foot Apatosaurus and a 45-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex.

“Bring your wading shoes and start exploring. You never know what you are going to find,” said Baker.

For more information call 254-897-4588.