Perfectly preserved dinosaur tracks discovered because of severe drought

Heatwaves across the world have led to droughts that have caused water levels to drop so much they have revealed some fascinating things.

In Spain, the ruins of an old town were revealed after a reservoir fell to 15 per cent of its total capacity. Meanwhile, creepy discoveries such as human remains have also been found where water levels of reservoirs have dropped to their lowest levels in decades.

Now, in Texas, an incredible set of perfectly preserved dinosaur tracks have been exposed as drought caused a river flowing through the Dinosaur Valley State Park to completely dry up.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said the dry weather had caused the tracks discovered, revealing astonishingly clear three-toed footprints from 113 million years ago, believed to be “one of the longest dinosaur trackways in the world”.

They were made by a dinosaur species known as Acrocanthosaurus. These reptiles weighed almost 7 tonnes (6,350 kilograms) as an adult and stood at 4.5 meters tall.

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Another dinosaur to leave tracks at the park is the Sauroposeidon. In adulthood, these measured 18 metres tall and weighed 44,000 kilograms.

Stephanie Salinas Garcia of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said: “Due to the excessive drought conditions this past summer, the river dried up completely in most locations, allowing for more tracks to be uncovered here in the park.

“Under normal river conditions, these newer tracks are underwater and are commonly filled in with sediment, making them buried and not as visible.”

Millions of years ago, dinosaurs left footprints in the mud at the edge of an ancient ocean where they can now be seen at the Texas national park in the bed of the Paluxy River.

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