First-ever adult Tyrannosaurus rex trackway discovered in North Dakota badlands

Updated on: September 10, 2026 / 9:44 AM CDT / CBS Minnesota

Paleontologists have discovered the first known trackway made by a full-grown Tyrannosaurus rex: four connected footprints found in the badlands of southwestern North Dakota, not far from the Montana border.

The find is described in a new paper published this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Before it, only two isolated adult T. rex footprints had ever been confirmed anywhere in the world, one in New Mexico and one in Montana. Neither showed how the animal was moving.

"Bones tell us an enormous amount about these animals, but footprints capture a moment of behavior," said Dr. Tyler Lyson, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. "With a trackway, we can actually follow an animal as it moved across the landscape. That is incredibly rare for T. rex."

The trackway was found in 2025 on U.S. Forest Service land near Marmarth, North Dakota, by Kent Hups, a high school teacher and amateur fossil hunter who was volunteering on one of Lyson's digs.

"As a teacher, I'm always telling my students that science starts with curiosity, passion and careful observation," Hups said. "I…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/