Dinosaur Tracks Identification Guide

How to Identify Dinosaur Tracks

Dinosaur tracks are among the most evocative fossils you can find. Unlike bones, which tell you about anatomy, tracks capture a moment in time --- an animal walking, running, or wading through mud on a specific day millions of years ago. Tracks are also far more common than skeletal fossils, and many significant trackway sites have been discovered by amateurs, hikers, and ranchers.

Types of Dinosaur Tracks

Theropod Tracks (Meat-Eaters)

Theropod tracks are the most recognizable dinosaur footprints. Key characteristics:

• Three forward-pointing toes with a narrow, elongated shape
• Sharp claw impressions at the tip of each toe (not always preserved)
• A narrow trackway --- theropods walked with their feet close to the midline, almost in a straight line
• Sizes range from a few inches (small coelurosaurs) to over two feet long (large tyrannosaurs)
• The middle toe (digit III) is typically the longest, with digits II and IV splaying outward

The classic three-toed dinosaur footprint you picture in your mind is almost always a theropod track. These are the most commonly preserved type because theropods walked on their toes (digitigrade stance), pressing them firmly into soft substrate.

Sauropod Tracks (Long-Necked Giants)

Sauropod tracks are unmistakable once you know what to look for:

• Front feet (manus): Crescent-shaped or U-shaped impressions, smaller than the hind prints
• Hind feet (pes): Large, roughly oval or round impressions, sometimes showing blunt claw marks
• Very large size --- hind foot prints can exceed three feet in length for large sauropods
• Wide-gauge trackway --- sauropods walked with their feet spaced well apart
• The front and hind prints often appear as pairs, with the smaller front print ahead and slightly to the inside of the larger hind print

Ornithopod Tracks (Duck-Bills and Relatives)

Ornithopod tracks can resemble theropod tracks but have distinguishing features:

• Three forward-pointing toes but generally wider and blunter than theropod prints
• No sharp claw marks --- ornithopods had hoof-like nails
• Wider trackway than theropods of similar size
• Larger ornithopods (hadrosaurs) left prints that can be two feet or more across
• Some ornithopod tracks show skin texture impressions on the sole of the foot

How to Distinguish Real Tracks from Natural Features

This is the critical skill. Nature creates many features that can look superficially like footprints. Here’s how to tell the difference:

Signs of a Real Track

• Consistent shape repeating at regular intervals. A single depression might be anything. Multiple similar impressions spaced evenly in a line are almost certainly a trackway.
• Anatomical detail. Real tracks show toe impressions, pad shapes, and sometimes claw marks or skin texture. Random erosion doesn’t produce anatomical detail.
• Displacement rims. When an animal steps into soft sediment, mud is pushed up around the edges of the print, creating raised rims. These are strong evidence of a genuine track.
• Consistent depth variation. Real tracks are deeper at the heel or ball of the foot (where pressure was greatest) and shallower at the toe tips. Erosion pits tend to be uniform.
• Undertrack deformation. The weight of the animal deformed layers of sediment beneath the surface track. Sometimes what you see exposed is not the surface print but a deformed layer below it, which appears as a less-detailed “ghost” of the original track.
• Found in appropriate rock types. Tracks are preserved in fine-grained sedimentary rocks --- mudstone, siltstone, fine sandstone --- that were once soft surfaces near water.

Common False Tracks

• Erosion potholes and scour marks can create round depressions in rock surfaces. They lack anatomical detail and don’t form regular patterns.
• Root casts are tubular impressions left by decayed plant roots. They can branch in ways that vaguely resemble toes but follow irregular organic branching patterns rather than the symmetric toe arrangement of a foot.
• Concretions and nodules that weather out of rock can leave circular depressions that look like round sauropod prints. Check for regular spacing and consistent shape.
• Mud cracks can intersect to create polygonal patterns that, with imagination, might resemble tracks. They form geometric patterns unrelated to locomotion.

Famous Dinosaur Trackway Sites

Dinosaur Ridge, Colorado

Located just west of Denver near Morrison, Colorado, Dinosaur Ridge is one of the most accessible dinosaur track sites in the world. The west side of the ridge exposes a tilted layer of Dakota Sandstone (Early Cretaceous, approximately 100 million years old) covered with hundreds of ornithopod and theropod tracks. A paved trail with interpretive signs guides visitors along the trackway. The site also exposes Morrison Formation bones on the east side of the ridge.

Glen Rose, Texas (Dinosaur Valley State Park)

The Paluxy River bed near Glen Rose, Texas, preserves spectacular sauropod and theropod trackways in Early Cretaceous limestone (approximately 113 million years old). The sauropod tracks here were among the first recognized in the world and helped prove that sauropods walked on land rather than wading in swamps, as was once theorized. During dry periods, the river bed exposes trackways you can walk right up to.

Dinosaur State Park, Connecticut

Located in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, this site preserves approximately 500 Early Jurassic (roughly 200 million years old) theropod tracks attributed to the ichnogenus Eubrontes. These three-toed prints, each about a foot long, were made by medium-sized theropod dinosaurs related to Dilophosaurus. A geodesic dome covers the main track exposure, and visitors can make plaster casts of real tracks at a designated area.

Clayton Lake State Park, New Mexico

Over 500 dinosaur tracks from at least eight different species are preserved in Early Cretaceous sandstone along the spillway of Clayton Lake dam. The tracks include theropods, ornithopods, and possibly pterosaur prints. This remote site in northeastern New Mexico sees far fewer visitors than it deserves given the quality of its trackways.

Picketwire Canyonlands, Colorado

Along the Purgatoire River in southeastern Colorado, the Picketwire Canyonlands contain the longest documented dinosaur trackway in North America. Over 1,300 individual prints from sauropods and theropods extend along a Late Jurassic (Morrison Formation) limestone layer. Access requires a moderate hike or mountain bike ride through Comanche National Grassland.

Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite, Wyoming

Discovered in 1997, this BLM-managed site near Shell, Wyoming, contains hundreds of Middle Jurassic theropod tracks --- making them some of the oldest dinosaur tracks in the Rocky Mountain region. The site is open to the public with interpretive signs.

Collecting and Ethical Considerations

Dinosaur tracks on federal or state land are protected by law and may not be collected, cast, or disturbed without a permit. Even making unauthorized molds or casts can damage fragile track surfaces.

If you discover previously unknown trackways:

1. Document the location with GPS coordinates and photographs (include a scale object)
2. Do not attempt to remove or cast the tracks
3. Report the find to the managing land agency (BLM, state parks, etc.) or a nearby natural history museum
4. Avoid publicizing the exact location on social media until professionals have assessed the site, as uncontrolled visitation can damage tracks

Trackway discoveries are scientifically valuable even when made on private land. Consider reaching out to a paleontologist --- trackway studies (ichnology) reveal information about dinosaur behavior, speed, social grouping, and ecology that bones alone cannot provide.

Commonly Confused With

• Erosion features
• Root casts
• Concretions

Where to Find Them