Scientists Find First Adult T. Rex Trackway - And The Footprints Are Human-Sized

Key Points:

• Researchers have uncovered a rare and significant trackway of an adult Tyrannosaurus rex in North Dakota, featuring four large footprints estimated to be 66.5 million years old, just before the asteroid impact that ended the Cretaceous period.
• This discovery is notable as the first known footpath made by an adult T. rex, providing unique behavioral insights that skeletal fossils alone cannot offer, such as stride length and walking speed estimated at 1.5 to 2 meters per second.
• The footprints, preserved in calcium carbonate and measuring about 1 meter long and 0.80 meters wide, help confirm the trackmaker as an adult T. rex and add to previous findings suggesting some tyrannosaurids may have exhibited social behavior.
• Despite challenges in fossil track preservation and identification, this trackway offers valuable data on dinosaur locomotion and will be preserved and displayed at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
• The discovery underscores the importance of curiosity and careful observation in science, as highlighted by co-author Kent Hups, a science teacher who found the trackway in 2025.