A recent drought in Texas revealed more dinosaur tracks in one of its state parks.
Dinosaur Valley State Park discovered a new trail of prints left by two different species this week to add to its 20 miles of tracks already mapped by park officials. When the water of the Paluxy River that runs through the park began to dry up, the tracks appeared. They are believed to have been left behind some 110 million years ago by two theropods: one roughly seven-ton Acrocanthosaurus and a 44-ton Sauropodseiden, also known as a Paluxysaurus.
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Tracks were first discovered in 1909 following a flood in the area. The first set was decidedly theropod prints, according to the park’s website, but later, more prints would be found, even that of sauropods. In 1972, the park would open as a 1,587-acre dedicated space to preserving the remnants of ancient history.
Currently, some 60% of Texas is experiencing severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, which scores droughts by calculating precipitation, snowpack, lake levels, streamflow ground water, humidity, vegetation health, and more. And a third of Texas is suffering extreme drought, a more serious classification, as of this week. These droughts “can have impacts on agriculture and grasslands” and “on hydrology and ecology and can persist even with short-term gains in precipitation,” according to its website.
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The combination of the drought and extreme heat has not only lowered the water levels of the Paluxy River but also made its riverbed drier, making the dinosaur tracks easier to discover. However, the park acknowledges on its website that the visibility of the tracks can differ on a daily basis due to weather and wet conditions, sometimes resulting in trails closing completely. During the summer, the river is known to dry up to the point that it becomes various isolated pools instead of a river.
Texas will be adding six new state parks thanks to a tax proposition passed last year, bringing the total number of state parks to 95. The existing state lands already add up to over 64,000 acres before the addition of new sites.
