"Flabbergasted" researchers have discovered that the face of a 20-story cliff in Alaska is covered in the fossilized footprints of dozens of dinosaurs, giving the impression that the creatures defied gravity to walk across its surface, though a geological process is actually to blame.
Long after the dinosaurs had left their mark in the area, the tracks were lifted up and dumped on their side as the ground bulged upward during a tectonic plate collision, similar to how the hood of a car buckles under the force of a collision. This tectonic activity was part of the geological commotion that birthed the 600-mile-long Alaska Range near Denali National Park, according to the National Park Service.
"When we first went out there, we didn't see much either," study co-author Pat Druckenmiller, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and curator at the University of Alaska Museum of the North, said in a statement. But in a certain light, the footprints became much more visible.
Upon closer inspection, the team realized that the footprints were incredibly detailed."They are beautiful," Druckenmiller said."You can see the shape of the toes and the texture of the skin.