Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

In the rocks of the Isle of Skye, dinosaur footprints are abundant, providing insights into dinosaur distribution and behavior during an important time in their evolution. The footprints were left in the rippled sands of an ancient subtropical lagoon, dating back to the Middle Jurassic -- approximately 167 million years ago.

The footprints range from 25-60cm long and come in two varieties: three-toed tracks left by bipedal, carnivorous theropods and rounder 'tyre-size' tracks made by quadrupedal, long-necked sauropods. Based on comparisons with previous fossil finds, the most likely trackmakers are identified as large theropods similar to Megalosaurus and early-branching members of the neosauropod group similar to Cetiosaurus, both of which are known from skeletal remains in the UK.

Many of these footprints occur together in sequential steps. The longest of these trackways are over 12 meters, among the longest examples known from the Isle of Skye. The spacing and orientation of these trackways represent slow walking gaits with no consistent direction or interaction with each other, most likely left by dinosaurs casually milling about at slightly different times.

This site supports previous evidence that Jurassic sauropods frequented Scottish lagoons. However, this site contains a higher proportion of theropod tracks than similar localities, possibly indicating some environmental difference between these ancient lagoons. This site also lacks footprints from other dinosaurs such as stegosaurs or ornithopods but whether these animals were truly absent in this environment or simply didn't leave footprints at this site remains unclear.

The authors add: "The footprints at Prince Charles's Point provide fascinating insight into the behaviors and environmental distributions of meat-eating theropods and plant-eating, long-necked sauropods during an important time in their evolution. On Skye, these dinosaurs clearly preferred shallowly submerged lagoonal environments over subaerially exposed mudflats. Intriguingly, the site also has some historical significance, as a place on Skye where Bonnie Prince Charlie landed and hid during his flight across Scotland following the Battle of Culloden."