Dinosaur in China walked at just 0.6 mph in newly studied footprint field

Researchers documented a vast dinosaur footprint field in Xuanhua, northern China, with more than 5,000 tracks spread across about 30,000 square meters.

A trackway from the Tuchengzi Formation suggests a small theropod moved at roughly 1 km/h, one of the slowest dinosaur walk speeds recorded.

The rocks date to about 154 to 134 million years ago, adding an important new window into dinosaur life in the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous.

The find expands China’s fossil footprint record and offers rare evidence that some carnivorous dinosaurs sometimes moved far more slowly than their predator image suggests.