How the Same Dino Tracks Ended Up on Different Continents

Bright Side

How did the same dinosaur footprints appear thousands of miles apart—on completely different continents? 🦕 This mind-bending mystery takes us back millions of years to a time when Earth looked nothing like it does today. Discover how shifting tectonic plates, supercontinents, and fossil evidence tell the incredible story of dinosaur migration across the globe. Could this be proof of Pangaea—or is there something even more surprising behind these tracks? Travel through time with us as science, geology, and paleontology collide to unravel this prehistoric puzzle. Don’t miss this journey into Earth’s ancient secrets!  Credit: CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0: Dinosaur footprints: By James St. John - https://flic.kr/p/yTLrvT, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84515627 Leptictis dakotensis: By James St. John - https://flic.kr/p/Snf1Zh, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83657351 CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/: Big theropod tracks 06: By PePeEfe, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21171589 Big theropod tracks 03: By PePeEfe, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21171576 Big theropod tracks 02: By PePeEfe, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21171577 Deinogalerix koenigswaldi: By Ghedoghedo, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16439725 CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0: Fossil jawbones: By Cardioceras, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95985859 Glacialisaurus holotype foot bones: By Jens Lallensack, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=154323927 Fossil insect: By Manukyan Andranik, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45866172 Palaeomyopa Fossil insect: By Jonas Damzen, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77274947 CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0: Skye: By marsupium photography - https://flic.kr/p/G9UZeT, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57498094 CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0: Dinosaur: By arqdehr/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/6QZVN Sauropod Footprint: By Stephen Hurrell/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/6osQI Rock Stone 15: By Andrea Spognetta (Spogna)/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/6ZYIF London Bus: By maregajavier/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/oBAYS Tyrant King: By Marcel Schanz/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/BHQv Brachiosauro: By Dodogamer/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/ow8CT Elephant: By Rukh3D/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/oDyA9 Oreodont: By Robert_the_whale/sketchfab, Robert_the_whale Shrew: By Robert_the_whale/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/oJPzU Ouranosaurus: By TimFallas/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/pqJuU Estemmenosuchus therapsid: By Robert_the_whale/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/oJMMB Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

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00:00It all started out as an ordinary working day for Gary Johnson, who was driving his excavator at a quarry in Oxfordshire.

00:09He was clearing the clay when, all of a sudden, he hit a bump.

00:13It turned out to be a huge footprint, and no animal from today could have possibly left it.

00:19Then, Gary noticed another huge footprint, just 10 feet ahead, and then another one.

00:25He soon realized those could be dinosaur footprints.

00:30And he was right.

00:32There were a total of about 200 huge footprints from 166 million years ago, or the middle of the Jurassic area, crisscrossing the limestone floor.

00:43Scientists started digging at the location in June 2024.

00:47The longest trackways they found are around 500 feet long.

00:52It wasn't the first major discovery in the area.

00:55Back in 1997, they found 40 dinosaur tracks nearby while digging in a limestone quarry.

01:02This time, the team took 20,000 photos of the new prints and made 3D models using flying drones.

01:09In total, there were five pathways at that site.

01:15Four of them were made by sauropods, which were huge, plant-eating dinosaurs that walked on all four legs.

01:22Their footprints kind of looked like giant elephant prints, only way bigger, because these dinos could grow up to 60 feet long, about two times as long as a London bus.

01:33The fifth track might have come from a megalosaurus, a carnivore.

01:38Its footprint looks like the kind you'd see in a cartoon.

01:41It's called a tridactyl, which means it has three big, clear toes.

01:46Hey, just like me.

01:47Kidding.

01:50Unlike previous dinos, these guys could walk and even run on there too.

01:54Back then, the area they lived in was like a warm, shallow lagoon, and these dinosaurs squished through the mud, leaving their footprints behind.

02:03The footprints can help us learn how fast the dinosaurs moved, how they walked, how big they were, and what kind of environment they lived in.

02:12You can't learn all that from bone fossil records, which makes this discovery super important.

02:17Scientists think that a big storm helped save the prints in such great condition.

02:23It could have dumped a lot of mud on top of them, keeping them safe from being washed away.

02:29Just several months after the Oxfordshire discovery, scientists found over 260 matching dinosaur footprints more than 3,700 miles apart on different continents, in Brazil and in Cameroon.

02:42When they studied these prints, they realized they were about the same age and shape and came from the same type of land and plate tectonic contexts.

02:52Northeastern Brazil, and what is now Cameroon in Africa, is one of the last tiny land bridges where dinos could cross between the landmasses freely before the continent of Ganwanda broke away completely, around 120 million years ago.

03:07Africa and South America started drifting apart around 140 million years ago, and the South Atlantic Ocean slowly filled the gap between them.

03:18As the land split, big basins formed, and rivers and lakes began to fill them up.

03:24The footprints were found in those very basins, on both sides of the ocean.

03:28Most of the prints were made by three-toed theropods, which were meat-eating dinosaurs, but there were also prints from sauropods and ornaviscians, who were herbivores.

03:40The plants in those river valleys fed the plant-eaters, which helped build a whole food chain.

03:46And the muddy ground helped preserve the dinosaurs' footprints, just like in England.

03:51The latest footprint discovery, this time in the Scottish Isle of Skye, helped scientists learn something new about the dino habits.

04:00So far, they've found more than 130 footprints at Prince Charles Point.

04:05And it turns out that huge meat-eating dinosaurs and their plant-eating prey shared the same water here 167 million years ago.

04:14Some of the tracks were made by megalosaurs, meat-eating dinosaurs that were early relatives of the T. rex.

04:22Others were from huge, long-necked plant-eaters.

04:26Some of them were three times bigger than an elephant.

04:30The scientists looked closely at the footprints to figure out how the dinosaurs walked and moved around.

04:36They believed the dinosaurs were hanging out near shallow freshwater lagoons, just like animals today gather around watering holes.

04:44Another important discovery from the Isle of Skye is two super-rare fossils that are helping scientists rewrite the whole evolution of mammals.

04:54Some shrew-like creatures today live just around one or two years, right?

04:59Well, those little guys used to stick around for seven years or even longer.

05:05Scientists found two nearly complete skeletons of it on Skye.

05:09One was a grown-up, and the other was a young one.

05:11To figure out how these animals lived and grew, scientists used high-tech x-ray scans to look inside the rock and check the teeth,

05:21kind of like counting tree rings to find out how old the tree is.

05:25The younger creature was still changing to adult teeth, but was already about two years old, which is very unusual for small animals.

05:33It lived in the area during the Jurassic period, when the sky was warm, tropical, and full of shallow seas and thick forests.

05:42Back then, these tiny and strange early mammals were just starting to appear in a world ruled by dinosaurs.

05:49But they were the beginning of the long line of mammals that would one day include cats, whales, and humans.

05:56Scientists are learning about the final days of dinos from a new fossil site in Argentina.

06:02Most of what we know about the impact of that dramatic asteroid hit comes from North America, where T. rex and Triceratops once lived.

06:11But now, we get to see what happened further south.

06:15The team of scientists working in a local quarry found bones from hadrosaurs, which are pretty rare in South America.

06:22Long ago, this desert area was warm and full of plants like ferns and palms.

06:29There was a stream flowing through wide, flat lands, which helped bury and preserve the animals that lived there.

06:36Back in 2020, scientists were exploring the area when a paleontologist found a dinosaur foot bone.

06:43They kept looking, even through heavy rain, and discovered a whole group of fossils,

06:48not just from one dino, but from several of different ages, maybe even a whole herd.

06:54Another super-important discovery here was a tiny mammal jaw with five teeth found just two hours after searching the site.

07:03The jaw came from a small, plant-eating mammal.

07:07These creatures were about the size of a chipmunk and had very special teeth with ridges and grooves for chewing plants.

07:13This was the first time a mammal jaw had ever been found in that whole area.

07:19And it made scientists realize the site could tell them more than just dinosaur stories.

07:25The team also found a tooth from another dinosaur and a claw from a smaller predator.

07:32All the fossils found here could help answer some big scientific questions.

07:35Like, were the dinosaurs already slowly disappearing before the asteroid hit, like they probably did up north?

07:43And what happened to the animals that survived the asteroid hit?

07:47Several years ago, scientists found another fossil, this time encased in amber,

07:53that came back from a time when dinosaurs walked the Earth.

07:56The world looked very different, but it also had some surprising things in common with today.

08:02Back then, the night skies were also lit up by glowing fireflies, and the dinos probably watched them like we do.

08:11The amber is 99 million years old, and this special firefly is only the second one ever found from the Mesozoic era.

08:21Finding these kinds of fossils is really hard, because fireflies have soft bodies that don't turn into fossils very well.

08:27That makes it tricky for scientists to figure out exactly how and when these beetles started to glow.

08:34But now, thanks to the newly found firefly, they believe the glowing started at least 100 million years ago.

08:42The fossil helps fill in the gaps in the evolution of fireflies and their ancestors.

08:48It shows that important parts, like their glowing bellies, have stayed the same since the middle of the Cretaceous period.

08:54That's it for today. So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

09:02Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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