Acrocanthosaurus Footprint - Somervell County Museum - Glen Rose, TX
N 32° 14.113 W 097° 45.378
14S E 617177 N 3567187
An Acrocanthosaurus footprint is on display outside the Somervell County Museum at 101 NE Vernon St, Glen Rose, TX.
Waymark Code: WM127CE
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/20/2020
Views: 5
The three-toed footprint of the Acrocanthosaurus is preserved in a slab of rock that is smooth around the edges, with rings in the rock that were probably used to attach chains that aided in the slab's removal from the river bed. Oddly, while we have the footprints, we don't have the fossils to go with them. A sign placed by the museum provides a little bit of background:
This track, made millions of years ago by an Acrocanthosaurus, was one of several found during excavation work at the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plan, located five miles north of here.
On the museum grounds is a Texas Historical Marker that references the Acrocanthosaurus, and it provides some general background:
Formed 100,000,000 years ago, tracks of 3 kinds of dinosaurs are preserved in the limestone below Paluxy River. Types include Acrocanthosaurus (a meat-eater), Camptosaurus (plant-eater who left 3-toed bird-like tracks), and Pleurocoelus (a plant-eater who made huge 5-toed prints).
For years following their discovery (about 1910), the tracks remained a novelty. When Paluxy River ran low, farmers caught catfish stranded in them.
Excavations by a prominent museum and several universities in 1938 brought the tracks to the attention of the world.