NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Scientists in North Dakota recently discovered what researchers believe is the first known footprint left by an adult T. rex, preserving the predator’s footprints some 66.5 million years after it walked the Earth. The findings, which focused on footprints discovered near Marmarth, North Dakota, were published September 9 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The footprint, or sequence of footprints, was discovered in 2025 in the Hell Creek Formation in southwestern North Dakota, on federal lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service. In the announcement, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science said the footprint extends more than 23 feet and consists of at least four three-toed prints. Images from the site show researchers examining the huge three-toed footprints in the rocky terrain. Researchers in North Dakota discovered what they believe is the first known footprint left by an adult T. rex. (Tyler Lyson) The tracks measure approximately 3 feet long, and their enormous size led researchers to determine that they were left by an adult T. rex. The identification was “based on the exceptional size of the footprints and the narrow shape of the toes, along with the abundance of T. rex fossils found in the surrounding area,” the museum said in a statement. RESEARCHERSWhile other isolated footprints have been attributed to adult T. rex, researchers said no footprints of adult T. rex had been previously described. “This is the first time that scientists have described a sequence of footprints, or footprints, probably left by the most famous of dinosaurs,” the statement also noted. “I have no doubt that if we kept digging deeper into a hill… we would find more.” Tyler Lyson, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and co-author of the study, told Fox News Digital that he was initially skeptical when volunteer Kent Hups, a high school teacher, saw the footprint. “At first I wasn’t convinced because it was just a footprint,” Lyson said. Rocks, he noted, “can erode into many different types of shapes.” T. rex was a huge predator that roamed western North America during the last chapter of the age of dinosaurs. (Culture Club/Getty Images) “I thought, well, if there are three, that’s a pattern,” he said. “If we can find a third print, then I’ll be a true believer.” The team began digging deeper into the hill and within about 30 minutes, they found a third footprint. SHOCKING PREHISTORIC DISCOVERY IN NJ BEACH ‘100%’ CAME FROM AN ANCIENT COLOSAL PREDATOR “At that time, myself, [plus] Kent, who found the footprint, we were absolutely ecstatic,” Lyson said. The four footprints, two left and two right, were spaced at a pace of about 13 feet. The researchers determined that the dinosaur was probably walking between 3.5 and 4.5 miles per hour when it left the footprints. (Kent Hups) The dinosaur may have been walking between 3.5 and 4.5 miles per hour, much like what humans do today, the researchers estimated. They used a high-resolution 3D surface scan to document the footprints and the entire footprint. The study’s lead author, Peter Falkingham, a professor of paleobiology at Liverpool John Moores University in England, then analyzed the footprints remotely using 3D data, even though he never saw the footprints in person. Tyler Lyson, seen at left, led the field work behind the recently described T. rex track. (Natalie Toth; De Agostini via Getty Images) The footprints each measure more than 3 feet long. They probably weigh between 800 and 1,000 pounds, according to Lyson. CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS Three of the tracks are scheduled to be recovered in In October, teams will place them on a network of helicopters and airlift them out of the rugged Badlands, he said. At the museum, researchers plan to clean the prints, and Lyson said he is hopeful they may contain preserved skin impressions. In the photo on the left, researcher Alex Polich. The ancient T. rex trail stretches 23 feet and consists of four enormous three-toed footprints (Natalie Toth; Tyler Lyson). Last year, paleontologists revealed a roughly 150-million-year-old dinosaur track in Colorado that may have preserved the footprints of a lame, long-necked sauropod. APPShortly after, scientists announced a new species of Spinosaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur that could have rivaled T.rex in size.
