Paleontologists have uncovered the first known trackway made by a full-grown Tyrannosaurus rex in the badlands of southwestern North Dakota, near the Montana border. Described in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the 23-foot trail of four three-toed footprints offers data on how the seven-ton predator moved approximately 66.5 million years ago.
A Rare 23-Foot Trail in North Dakota Badlands
Prior to this find, scientists had confirmed only two isolated adult T. rex footprints globally—one in New Mexico and one in Montana. Neither of those individual specimens captured how the animal was moving.
Amateur Fossil Hunter Spots Massive Impressions
The fossil find materialized on U.S. Forest Service land near Marmarth, North Dakota. Kent Hups, a high school teacher and amateur fossil hunter volunteering on a dig led by Tyler Lyson, spotted the massive impressions during fieldwork in 2025.
According to Hups, science starts with curiosity, passion, and careful observation, noting he never imagined those principles would lead to such a discovery.
“Bones tell us an enormous amount about these animals, but footprints capture a moment of behavior,” stated Dr. Tyler Lyson, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. “With a trackway, we can actually follow an animal as it moved across the landscape. That is incredibly rare for T. rex.”
Calculating Speed and Digital Analysis
The trackway stretches roughly 23 feet long. It features four distinct tridactyl, or three-toed, footprints. Each individual print measures approximately 3 feet in length. By analyzing the spacing between the prints, researchers calculated that the dinosaur traveled at a walking speed of roughly 3.5 to 4.5 miles per hour.
Based on the dimensions, morphology, and the prevalence of tyrannosaur fossils in the local strata—which includes a young T. rex specimen called “Teen Rex” found in those same badlands in 2022 by three boys out on a family hike—experts concluded the tracks belonged to Tyrannosaurus rex.
Advanced digital documentation techniques played a major role in analyzing the site. Researchers at the Denver Museum captured 3D scans of the badlands trackway. Peter Falkingham of Liverpool John Moores University in England led the formal analysis of the digital data, writing the paper without needing to visit the North Dakota field site in person.
Helicopter Extraction and Final Days of the Dinosaurs
Plans are in motion to airlift three of the four footprints out of the field via helicopter, moving them to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
Dating back roughly 66.5 million years, the trackway originated near the close of the Cretaceous era, representing one of the final journeys made by a T. rex prior to the asteroid strike that researchers attribute to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
