Dinosaur footprints - called trackways - are one of the best windows we have into how dinosaurs actually lived and moved. When a dinosaur stepped into soft mud and the mud later dried, hardened, and got buried under more sediment, the print could be preserved for tens of millions of years.
The biggest known sauropod tracks are about 5 feet across - wider than a kid is tall. From the depth of the print, the spacing between left and right feet, and the length of each stride, scientists can work out how heavy the dinosaur was, how fast it was moving, and whether it was alone or in a herd.
Some sites preserve whole trackways: dozens of dinosaurs walking together, baby tracks tucked safely in the middle of adult tracks, or a predator’s prints following a plant-eater’s prints across an ancient riverbank.
