Thousands of dinosaur footprints dating back more than 200 million years have been found on a rock face in the Italian Alps, near the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics venue of Bormio, officials have announced.
Wildlife photographer Elio Della Ferrera discovered the footprints, which number up to 20,000 and that date back to the Triassic period, by chance in September.
The footprints, some up to 40 centimeters across, are aligned in parallel rows, many showing clear traces of toes and claws, and are thought to have been left by prosauropods, which were herbivores with long necks, small heads, and sharp claws.
"This is one of the largest and oldest footprint sites in Italy, and among the most spectacular I've seen in 35 years," Cristiano Dal Sasso, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in Milan, said at a news briefing on Tuesday. "This time, reality really does surpass fantasy."
Della Ferrera, the photographer who discovered the site, said he hoped the find would "spark reflection in all of us, highlighting how little we know about the places we live in: our home, our planet".
Dal Sasso said that in the Triassic period, about 210 million years ago, the site was a tidal flat that later rose to form part of the Alpine mountain chain.
"This place was full of dinosaurs; it's an immense scientific treasure," he added.
The paleontologist explained that the herds moved in synchrony, "and there are also traces of more complex behaviors, like groups of animals gathering in a circle, perhaps for the purposes of defense".
Prosauropods were up to 10 meters in length and mostly walked on two legs, but handprints in front of the footprints suggest they sometimes paused and rested their forelimbs on the ground.
"There are very obvious traces of individuals that have walked at a slow, calm, quiet rhythmic pace, without running," Dal Sasso explained.
Over time, the fossilized footprints were tilted from their original horizontal position to a vertical point high on the rock face, where Della Ferrera spotted them while out photographing deer and vultures.
"The huge surprise was not so much in discovering the footprints, but in discovering such a huge quantity," Della Ferrera said. "There are really tens of thousands of prints up there, more or less well-preserved."
Located 2,400 to 2,800 meters above sea level and about 600 meters above the nearest road, the prints are difficult to access and experts said they are going to have to rely on drones and remote sensing technologies to study them further.
Officials welcomed the discovery, just a few kilometers from where the men's Alpine skiing competition will take place during the Winter Olympics in February.
"It's as if history itself wanted to pay homage to the greatest global sporting event, combining past and present in a symbolic passing of the baton between nature and sport," said Italy's Ministry of Culture.
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