Tyrannosauripus is an ichnogenus of dinosaur footprint.
Description In 1983, geologist Charles "Chuck" Pillmore discovered a fossil footprint.
In 1994, Martin Lockley and Adrian Hunt formally described the footprint.
This fossil footprint from northern New Mexico (within the Philmont Scout Ranch boundary) is long by wide.
Given its Late Cretaceous age (about 66 million years old), the footprint likely belonged to the giant theropod dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex.
In 2016, the size of the individual dinosaur was estimated at meters and .
Background In 1971, similar tridactyl dinosaur tracks in North America were discovered earlier and named Tyrannosauropus,Peterson, W. (1924). Dinosaur tracks in the roofs of coal mines. Natural History, 24:388-391.Haubold, H. (1971). Ichnia Amphiborum et Reptiliorum Fossilium. Handbuch der Palaeoherpetologie Teil 18. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart. 124 pp. but they were later recognized as hadrosaurid tracks and their description deemed inadequate, with Tyrannosauropus regarded as a nomen dubium. True footprints likely from Tyrannosaurus would not be found until the discovery of Tyrannosauripus.
In 2007, a large tyrannosaurid track was found also in eastern Montana (Hell Creek Formation).
In 2016, a probable fossil trackway of Tyrannosaurus was discovered in Wyoming (Lance Formation).
In 2026, the discovery of a set of four Tyrannosauripus footprints that constitute a 7 m (23 ft) trackway was published. The footprints were uncovered in 2025 from the upper Hell Creek Formation in Marmarth, North Dakota by a high school teacher named Kent M. Hups (who would co-author the discovery), and are preserved as calcium carbonate-cemented sandstone casts left behind when the softer rock around them eroded. The size of the tracks and the age of the formation indicates the tracks were likely made by an adult Tyrannosaurus rex., as each track is roughly long. The stride length is estimated to have been , suggesting a speed of . The lack of footprints potentially attributable to Tyrannosaurus may be a result of the fluvial environments in which the theropod lived, resulting in most footprints being washed away.
See also Dinosaur Ichnogenus
References
Bibliography
External links No Australian Tyrannosauropus After all - Lark Quarry Revisited
Ve stopách posledních gigantů