An ultra-rare T. Rex footprint may have been found in the Badlands of Montana. Phil Manning, from the Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, claims a metre-square track he found in rocks called the Hell Creek Formation was left by that most iconic of dinosaurs around 65 million years ago. “It could only be made by one of the two species known from Hell Creek - either the Nanotyrannus or its bigger relative, Tyrannosaurus rex. The size of the footprint at 76cm in length suggests it is more likely to be the latter,” he told a BBC documentary.

There is one previous claimed T. Rex footprint, discovered in New Mexico in 1983 and published 11 years later (see USGS). A number of news sources however are reporting this as the first ever found (PA, Daily Mail). A report on the fossil has apparently been submitted for peer review. Whether or not this is truly a T. Rex footprint will probably never be known. As Manning says: “Unless you come across an animal dead in its tracks you can't say for definite what left them.”

A reportage piece on the hunt for the footprint is already up on the BBC website, and there is a video clip of the footprint on YouTube.

Image: Alamy