11.5" Shale with Two Dinosaur (Grallator) Footprints - Massachusetts

Shale with Two Dinosaur (Grallator) Footprints - Massachusetts #383427

This plate of shale contains two dinosaur footprints, collected from the Jurassic-aged Portland Formation of Massachusetts. Based on the toe spread and shape, the prints would likely be from Grallator. Grallator is an ichnogenus (form taxon based on footprints) which covers a common type of small, three-toed print made by a variety of bipedal theropod dinosaurs.

It comes with a metal display stand.

The impressions have been covered in a glossy sealant to help them stand out on the brown matrix.

In 1991 the Connecticut state legislature designated fossil, theropod dinosaur tracks found in the Connecticut Valley as their state fossil.

The Connecticut Valley is home to the first dinosaur tracks identified in North America. Thousands of tracks from several different types of dinosaurs have been discovered in the Early Jurassic aged sandstone on the valley floor. The most abundant of these tracks is a three-toed, theropod dinosaur track which ranges from about 16 to 20 inches long. Over two thousand of these tracks were discovered in a single layer of rock in Rocky Hill while doing construction on a highway. While no skeletal remains of this dinosaur have been found, it was named Eubrontes giganteus in 1845 by famous paleontologist Edward Hitchcock

Closeup of Eubrontes tracks at Dinosaur State Park in Connecticut.

Based on size, shape and stride it’s believed the dinosaur that left these tracks much has over one meter high at the hip and 5-6 meters long. Based on these characteristics and their age it’s possible they may be related to Dilophosaurus, but that’s mostly just a guess.

SPECIES

Grallator sp.

AGE

Early Jurassic (~199 Million Years)