Thousands of dinosaur footprint fossils have been found along Alaska's Yukon River on Thursday ABC News reported.
"We found dinosaur footprints by the scores on literally every outcrop we stopped at," Paul McCarthy, a professor of geology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks said in a statement ABC News reported. "The tracks were so abundant along the Yukon River that we could find and collect as many as 50 specimens in as little as 10 minutes," he said. "If there's a big storm and the footprint is covered in clay blown from the hillside, it will cover the footprint. After it hardens over millions of years, the clay molding ends up capturing what the foot itself looked like. It's like you're seeing the animal's foot while it was alive."
Researchers found the fossilized footprints of meat eaters and plant eaters in the rocks next to the river. Several of which were found sticking out of the rocks instead of pointing inwards ABC News reported.
"They're not the most groundbreaking fossils, but they're interesting. It's important to see how exactly these fossils add to the diversity of the dinosaurs we know of," Mark Norell head of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History told ABC News. "It's important to see how exactly these fossils add to the diversity of the dinosaurs we know of."
There are many locations throughout the United States which contain dinosaur fossils although scientists have not searched Alaska as much.
"This is the kind of discovery you would have expected in the Lower 48 as hundred years ago," Pat Druckenmiller, earth sciences curator at the University of Alaska Museum of the North told the network. "We found a great diversity of dinosaur types, evidence of an extinct ecosystem we never knew existed."
The team of researchers came across the tracks after a 500 mile boat trip along the river United Press International reported.
