Dinosaur attractions in the UK take many forms. Not only can we find dinosaur theme parks, museums and even theatre shows like Dinosaur World Live, we can also visit places where the real creatures walked. Several places in the UK, including Oxfordshire, Yorkshire and the Isle of Wight, are home to fossilised dinosaur footprints. But how do they form and what do they tell us about the animals who made them? Let’s find out.

How did dinosaur footprints form?

Like any large animal that roams the planet today, dinosaurs left footprints when they walked through muddy or swampy areas along the shorelines of lakes or seas. As the area dried the tracks dried too, and over time a layer of sediment - mud, ash, sand or small pebbles - filled the depressions left by the animals. Over millions of years this sediment hardened into rock.

Sometimes the dinosaurs were so heavy that they compressed the ground beneath their feet. This would leave an ‘undertrack’, which could remain preserved beneath the surface layers of soil. Again, the passage of millions of years led to this soil hardening to rock, preserving the prints. 

After millions more years, erosion of the ground, weathering and geological forces gradually reveal the buried tracks, enabling us to see them. In some cases, quarrying leads to the emergence of tracks. In January 2025, the largest ever dinosaur trackway was discovered by workers at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire.

What do dinosaur footprints tell us?

Fossilised dinosaur footprints can tell researchers several things. While they may not give answers about the exact species that made them, they will indicate the dinosaur group. For example, prints made by a four-legged dinosaur are likely to belong to the sauropod group - gigantic herbivores like Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus. Footprints made by theropods, meanwhile, are narrow and long with a V-shaped outline and show two-legged movement. 

In addition to the group of dinosaurs that the tracks belonged to, scientists can tell how they moved. The length of the stride can show how large they were and how fast they were travelling, while sets of parallel tracks could suggest the dinosaurs moved as a herd. 

In rare cases where prints have been perfectly preserved, skin impressions or claw marks can be spotted, showing how flexible the dinosaurs’ toes were. 

At the Dewars Farm Quarry, the team investigating the tracks believe a sauropod passed through the environment first, followed later by a theropod - possibly a megalosaurus. This is because the front edge of the larger footprints are slightly squashed down by the smaller ones, indicating that the theropod walked over the top of them. 

Walk in the footsteps of dinosaurs

Some sites - like Dewars Farm Quarry - are not open to the public, but if you want to find ‘dinosaur attractions near me’ and walk in the footsteps of these amazing creatures, why not book tickets to Dinosaur World Live? This Olivier Award winning family show uses stunning puppetry to introduce kids to a host of dinosaurs and is suitable for children aged three and up. Search ‘family theatre near me’ and book via your local venue.