Paleontologists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Liverpool John Moores University discovered a 23-foot long Tyrannosaurus rex trackway in southwestern North Dakota's badlands. The trackway consists of four connected, three-toed footprints with toes measuring about 3.3 feet long. According to the researchers, the T. rex was likely walking at a speed of approximately 3.5 to 4.5 mph and had a stride of around 13 feet. The discovery is significant as it provides rare insight into the behavior of an adult T. rex during the Cretaceous Period, about 66.5 million years ago.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-11,
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Story summary
Paleontologists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Liverpool John Moores University in England have discovered a 4.6 million-year-old trackway made by an adult *Tyrannosaurus rex* (*T. rex*) in southwestern North Dakota's badlands, near the Montana border. The team found four connected, large, three-toed footprints that are roughly 23 feet long and indicate the dinosaur had a stride of about 13 feet and was walking at a speed of approximately 3.5 to 4.5 mph**. The discovery is significant because it provides a rare glimpse into the behavior of *T. rex*, which can only be achieved through footprints, not bones alone. The tracks are preserved in fine-grained sandstone concretions and were found on the Dakota Prairie Grasslands, managed by the US Forest Service, in Slope County.
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The first known trackway made by an adult Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) was recently discovered in southwestern North Dakota by a team of scientists.
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trackway → know → scientists
Paleontologists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Liverpool John Moores University in England, found four connected, large, three-toed footprints in the North Dakota badlands, not far from the Montana border.
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Paleontologists → find → border
According to a paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the trackway is roughly 23 feet long, with the toes measuring around 3.3 feet long.
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toes → accord → Paleontology
The spacing between the prints indicates the dinosaur had a stride of about 13 feet and was likely walking at a speed of approximately 3.5 to 4.5 mph.
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dinosaur → indicate → mph
“Bones tell us an enormous amount about these animals, but footprints capture a moment of behavior,” Tyler Lyson, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science said.
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Lyson → tell → Nature
“With a trackway, we can actually follow an animal as it moved across the landscape.
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it → follow → landscape
The trackway was found in 2025 on the Dakota Prairie Grasslands, which is managed by the US Forest Service, in Slope County.
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which → find → County
The tracks are preserved as fine-grained sandstone concretions cemented with calcium carbonate, which nucleated around footprint depressions, according to the article.
uncertain
which → preserve → article
The researchers noted that, before the discovery, large theropod tracks were uncommon within the Hell Creek Formation, which is a division of mostly Upper Cretaceous and some Lower Paleocene rock in North America.
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which → note → America
When the team first discovered the trackway, the site was scanned using a 3D scanner to further support their hypothesis.
“The technology we’re able to apply in the digital age means my colleagues could scan the tracks in the field and then send the 3D information over to me to visualize on my computer and in VR, enabling me to take as close a look as they did in person,” Peter Falkingham, a professor of paleobiology at Liverpool John Moores University and lead author of the study said.
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Falkingham → discover → study
The team also found T. rex skeletal elements and skeletons in the local area, further strengthening their belief that the tracks were made by T. rex.
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tracks → find → rex
The tracks date to about 66.5 million years ago, near the very end of the Cretaceous Period, shortly before an asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs.
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impact → date → dinosaurs
The footprints are expected to be recovered this fall and transported to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
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footprints → expect → Science
The first-ever adult T. rex trackway discovered by scientists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Liverpool John Moores University in England is pictured.
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trackway → discover → England
The spacing between the prints indicates the dinosaur had a stride of about 13 feet and was likely walking at a speed of approximately 3.5 to 4.5 mph.
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dinosaur → indicate → mph
The tracks are preserved as fine-grained sandstone concretions cemented with calcium carbonate, which nucleated around footprint depressions.
asserted
which → preserve → depressions
Until recently, tracks and trackways associated with non-Tyrannosaurus tyrannosaurids had not provided clear evidence that could be associated with an adult T. rex. Andrey Atuchin
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that → associate → Atuchin
