GLEN ROSE, Texas. — Dinosaur Valley State Park Superintendent Jeff Davis and his staff are busier than ever and that’s never a bad thing.
“Phones are blowing up, social media is blowing up with people asking questions, wanting to get into the park, it’s wonderful for what we do here,” Davis said.
With word spreading of the recent dinosaur track discovery in Glen Rose, researchers and prehistoric fans alike have made the trek to the small North Central Texas town 75 miles Southwest of Dallas.
"This is really special to have a trail this long, this clean, it’s really knocking everyone’s socks off and it should,” prehistoric track researcher Glen Kuban said.
“It’s awesome, every time I see it, I say this is a real dinosaur footprint,” volunteer Isabella Snead said.
In the past week, the tracks were exposed because of Texas’ longstanding drought conditions. Experts say they are estimated to be 113 million years old, belonging to Acrocanthosaurus, Sauroposeidon, and possibly many others.
“It’s the picture of how we can see Texas 113 million years ago and that’s a great thing,” Southern Methodist University paleontologist and professor, Louis Jacobs said.
Jacobs spent time in the park last week examining the different dinosaur tracks and believes a lot can be learned.
“You can tell how fast they go, calculate their speed, weights and heights, you can do a lot of things with them,” Jacobs said.
With excessive heat in the state continuing to dry out various bodies of water, there could be additional discoveries ahead this summer.
“All across the Hill Country, they should be coming out,” Jacobs said.
The park, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in October, believes this increased interest will help showcase its importance.
“This is such an exciting feeling, this is kind of the stuff we live for,” Davis said.