Paleontologists have uncovered the first known adult Tyrannosaurus rex trackway in North Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation. Dating back roughly 66.5 million years, the 23-foot-long sequence of four massive footprints was discovered by a high school teacher and offers insight into the walking behavior of the apex predator.
Few dinosaurs are as instantly recognizable as Tyrannosaurus rex, and its fossil remains have been found across western North America. While the bones and teeth of this iconic predator are relatively well known, evidence of how it actually moved across the ancient landscape is far rarer. That changed when a team of researchers from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Liverpool John Moores University confirmed the discovery of a continuous sequence of footprints left behind by a fully grown adult.
Discovery in the Hell Creek Formation by a High School Teacher
The rare trackway was discovered in 2025 on federal land administered by the U.S. Forest Service near the town of Marmarth, North Dakota. Kent Hups, a high school science teacher at Northglenn High School and amateur fossil hunter, initially spotted the site while volunteering on a dig led by museum researchers.
Kent Hups, the teacher at Northglenn High School who found the site and co-authored the paper, stated that as a teacher, he was always telling his students that science starts with curiosity, passion and careful observation, adding that he never imagined that could lead him to a discovery like this. He also noted that it is the closest you get to a time machine.
A team of scientists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Liverpool John Moores University in England identified the footprints as belonging to T. rex due to their massive size and narrow shape of the toes, along with the abundance of T. rex fossils found in the surrounding area. The findings, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, provide new insight into the behavior of the famous dinosaur as it moseyed its way across an ancient path millions of years ago.
Digital Mapping Reveals a Brisk Walking Pace
The entire trackway stretches 23 feet long (7 meters) and comprises two left and two right footprints. Each individual imprint measures about 3 feet (0.91 meters) in length, maintaining a stride of about 13 feet (3.96 meters). To document the site, the team later used high-resolution 3D surface scanning to document each footprint and the full trackway.
Peter Falkingham, a professor of paleobiology at Liverpool John Moores University who was lead author of the study, explained that the technology they were able to apply in the digital age meant his colleagues could scan the tracks in the field and then send the 3D information over to him to visualize on his computer and in VR, enabling him to take as close a look as they did in person.
By analyzing the digital reproductions, researchers estimate that the T. rex was walking at a pace of approximately 3.5 to 4.5 miles per hour (5.6 to 7.2 kilometers per hour). That speed is roughly comparable to a brisk human walking pace, indicating that this particular dinosaur was not in a hurry as it traversed the prehistoric terrain. Because the tracks are heavily weathered, the speed estimate is approximate.
Helicopter Recovery and Next Steps at the Denver Museum
Because bones can only tell part of the story, trackways offer scientists a direct window into living animal dynamics. As Tyler Lyson, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and co-author of the new study, who was leading the dig that Mr. Hups was volunteering on, noted in a statement:
Tyler Lyson noted that while bones tell us an enormous amount about these animals, footprints capture a moment of behavior, adding that with a trackway, we can actually follow an animal as it moved across the landscape, which is incredibly rare for T. rex.
The scientific team is planning to excavate three of the four footprints later this year and transport them to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science by helicopter this fall. The museum plans to share updates from the recovery with guests this winter.