World’s longest dinosaur footprint unearthed at Dewars Farm Quarry in UK’S Oxfordshire

Researchers have uncovered the world’s longest dinosaur footprint trackway at a new excavation area of Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire.

The excavation, conducted jointly by teams from the Universities of Oxford, Birmingham, and Liverpool John Moores, took place during a week-long dig in the hot, dry summer of 2025. Scientists documented hundreds of individual footprints across four trackways, including Europe’s longest sauropod trackway, stretching approximately 220 metres from the first to the last visible print.

According to experts, the newly discovered trackways were made by sauropod dinosaurs, massive, long-necked herbivores similar to Cetiosaurus that roamed the area roughly 166 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic Period.

The footprints, each measuring up to one metre in length, were left as the dinosaurs moved along an exposed mudflat bordering a prehistoric lagoon.

Dr Laura Green, lead researcher from the University of Oxford, described the find as “a once-in-a-generation discovery that offers an extraordinary window into the movement and behaviour of some of the largest creatures to have ever walked the Earth.”

The team plans to preserve and digitally map the entire trackway using 3D scanning technology to ensure detailed study and public display in the future.