Age: 205-200 Million Years Old (Early Jurassic)
Location: Connecticut River Valley, Massachusetts
Ichnogenus: Eubrontes gigantus
Species: Unknown Ornithischian Dinosaur Species
Slab Size: 11.2” x 6.1” x 1”
Footprint Size: 3”x 3.2”
This is a very impressive fossil dinosaur footprint made by a large, carnivorous theropod dinosaur from the late Triassic or early Jurassic! This specimen was Self-collected legally near Durham, Cobjectivity.
This specimen is a raised impression, otherwise known as a “natural cast”. This process of fossilization occurs when a trace is made, quickly hardens, and is buried swiftly with fresh sedimentary deposits that harden within the true impression. Occasional when you split the rocks of this region, you can get both the positive and negative impressions. However in some cases, like this, only one side of the fossil impression survives.
The footprints were discovered, amongst others, by a farm boy, Pliny Moody. E.B. Hitchcock, a clergyman, described the Eubrontes footprints and others as evidence of ancient birds. Eubrontes is the name of fossilized dinosaur footprints dating from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. They have been identified from France, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Australia (Queensland) and the USA.
Eubrontes is the name of the footprints, identified by their shape, and not of the genus or genera that made them, which is as yet unknown. They are most famous for their discovery in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts in the early 19th century. They, among other footprints, were the first known non-avian dinosaur tracks to be discovered in North America, though they were initially thought to have been made by large birds.
The footprints were first described by Edward Hitchcock, a professor of Amherst College, who thought they were made by a large bird. He originally assigned them to ichnotaxon Ornithichnites in 1836, then Ornithoidichnites in 1841, before coining Eubrontes in 1845. The name means "true thunder," probably referring to the supposed weight of the animal impacting on the ground.
in 1858 Hitchcock still described the tracks as those of "a thick-toed bird," since there was no evidence of tail drag marks. But by the time that Richard Swann Lull began working on the tracks in 1904, they were thought to belong to a dinosaur. Lull originally thought they were from a herbivore, but by 1953 he concluded they were from a carnivorous theropod. Many later authors have agreed with this interpretation, but some have suggested that they are from a prosauropod. Regardless, they are almost certainly saurischian.
