T rex footprints unearthed in first-ever discovery 66 million years after creature walked the Earth

Scientists in North Dakota recently discovered what researchers believe is the first known trackway left by an adult T. rex — preserving the predator's footsteps some 66.5 million years after it walked the Earth.

The findings, which centered on footprints discovered near Marmarth, North Dakota, were published Sept.

9 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The trackway, or sequence of footprints, was discovered in 2025 in the Hell Creek Formation of southwestern North Dakota, on federal land administered by the U.S.

Forest Service.

BOY STUMBLES ON STRANGE BEACH OBJECT IDENTIFIED AS RARE 1.8M-YEAR-OLD FOSSIL In a recent announcement, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science said the trackway stretches more than 23 feet and consists of at least four three-toed prints.

Pictures from the site show researchers examining the massive, three-toed prints in the rocky terrain.

The prints are roughly 3 feet long — and their enormous size led researchers to determine that they were left by an adult T. rex.

The identification was "based on the footprints’ exceptional size and narrow shape of the toes, along with the abundance of T. rex fossils found in the surrounding area," the museum said in a statement.

ANCIENT OCEAN MYSTERY DEEPENS AS LONG-MISIDENTIFIED FOSSIL IS FINALLY REVEALED BY RESEARCHERS While other isolated footprints have been attributed to adult T. rex, researchers said no adult T. rex trackway had been described previously.

"This is the first time scientists have described a sequence of tracks, or trackway, likely left by this most famous of dinosaurs," the release also noted.

Tyler Lyson, the senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and the study's co-author, told Fox News Digital he was initially skeptical when volunteer Kent Hups, a high school teacher, spotted the print.

"Initially I wasn't convinced because it was only one print," Lyson said.

Rocks, he noted, "can erode into many different types of shapes." "I thought, well, if there's three, that's a pattern," he said.