MILAN, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Italian paleontologists have discovered thousands of dinosaur tracks on a near-vertical rock face more than 2,000 meters above sea level in Stelvio National Park, a discovery they say is one of the richest sites from the Triassic period in the world.
The tracks, some up to 40 centimeters wide and bearing claw marks, stretch for about 5 kilometers in the Valle di Fraele, a high-altitude glacier near Bormio, one of the venues for the 2026 Winter Olympics in the northern region of Lombardy.
“This is one of the largest and oldest footprint sites in Italy and one of the most spectacular I have seen in 35 years,” Cristiano Dal Sasso, a paleontologist at Milan’s Natural History Museum, told a news conference Tuesday at the Lombardy region headquarters.
Experts believe the footprints were left by groups of long-necked herbivores, possibly Plateosaurus, more than 200 million years ago, when the area was a warm lagoon, perfect for dinosaurs to roam along the beach and leave tracks in the mud near the water.
“The footprints left on the broad tidal flats surrounding the Tethys Ocean when the sediments were still soft left a deep impression,” said archaeologist Fabio Massimo Petti of Trento’s MUSE museum, who attended the same meeting.
“The mud, now turned into rock, preserved remarkable anatomical details of the foot, such as impressions of toes and even claws,” Petty added.
As the African plate gradually moved northward, closing and drying out the Tethys Ocean, the sedimentary rocks that formed the ocean floor were folded, creating the Alps.
In September, a wildlife photographer chasing deer and bearded vultures discovered fossilized dinosaur tracks on a hillside that had shifted from a horizontal to a vertical position, experts said.
“Natural science offers Milan-Cortina 2026 an unexpected and precious gift from a distant time,” Giovanni Malago, president of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Organizing Committee, told reporters.
The area is inaccessible by trails, so drones and remote sensing technology have to be used to study it.
(Reporting by Giancarlo Navach‌ and Giselda Vagnoni; Editing by Hugh Lawson)