Age: 205-200 Million Years Old (Early Jurassic)
Location: Connecticut River Valley, Massachusetts
Ichnogenus: Anomoepus
Species: Unknown Theropod Dinosaur Species
Slab Size: 14.2” x 9.11” x 2”
Footprint Size: 9”x 4.11”
This is a very impressive fossil dinosaur footprint made by a predatory theropod dinosaur from the late Triassic or eary Jurassic! This specimen was Self-collected legally near Great Granby, Massachusetts.
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 Anchisauripus footprints and others as evidence of ancient birds. They have since been identified as belonging to a dinosaur.
Anchisauripus is an ichnogenus that has been attributed to medium-sized theropod dinosaiurs. It has been found in, among other units, the Lower Jurassic Aztaec Sandstone, but is more famously associated with the Connecticut River Valley from where it was first discovered. Anchisauripus is the name of the footprint, as the species is impossible to tell.
