Highest number of dino footprints in one place found in Bolivia

A record breaking number of fossilised dinosaur footprints have been counted by scientists at a national park in Bolivia.

The research shows the area used to be an ancient coastline and swim tracks were also observed.

Most of the tracks belong to therapods which were dinosaurs that walked on two legs and had three toes.

Overall, researchers counted 16,600 footprints and 1,378 swim tracks which they date back to the Cretaceous period which was between 145 million to 66 million years ago.

The preserved tracks found are unique for the way they show lots of dinosaur behaviours like walking, running, swimming and tail-dragging.

One of the researchers on the study Dr. Jeremy McLarty from Southwestern Adventist University, in the US, says there's a lot to learn from these tracks:

"Trackways open up a 'real-time' window of what the dinosaurs were doing as they moved across an area.

"Were they walking or running? Moving randomly or in preferred directions? Questions like these can't be answered from bones alone."