Discover which dinosaur left which footprints with the aid of a new AI technique

AI Helps Scientists Decode Dinosaur Footprints and Identify Ancient Trackmakers

Footprints are among the most common types of dinosaur fossils. Sometimes scientists uncover a single, isolated print. Other times, they find a chaotic jumble of tracks resembling a prehistoric dance floor.

But figuring out exactly which dinosaur made which footprint has long been one of paleontology’s toughest puzzles.

Now, researchers have developed an artificial intelligence-based method to help identify the species behind fossilised tracks by analysing eight key characteristics of each footprint.

“This is important because it provides an objective way to classify and compare tracks, reducing reliance on subjective human interpretation,” said physicist Gregor Hartmann of Germany’s Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, lead author of the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Matching track to trackmaker is a huge challenge, and paleontologists have been arguing about this for generations,” added Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh and senior author of the research.

How the AI works

Dinosaurs left behind many types of fossils — bones, teeth, skin impressions, eggshells and even stomach contents — but footprints are often far more abundant. These tracks can reveal valuable clues about habitat, behaviour and which animals shared the same ecosystem.

To train the system, researchers analysed 1,974 footprint silhouettes spanning 150 million years of dinosaur history. The AI identified eight features that explain differences in track shapes, including:

• Overall load and shape

• Ground contact area

• Toe spread

• Toe attachment

• Heel position and pressure

• Toe versus heel emphasis

• Left-right symmetry

Many of these prints had already been confidently classified by experts, helping the algorithm learn how different dinosaurs’ feet correspond to specific footprint patterns.

Solving an ancient mystery

Identifying tracks is tricky because footprint shapes depend on more than just the dinosaur itself. Factors like movement (walking, running or jumping), ground moisture, sediment burial and millions of years of erosion can dramatically alter a track’s appearance.

“The same dinosaur can leave very different-looking tracks,” Hartmann explained.

Footprints also vary wildly in size — from chicken-sized prints of small meat-eaters to massive sauropod tracks as large as bathtubs.

Brusatte compared the process to detective work.

“If we find footprints, we try to find a dinosaur foot that fits in the footprint — like the prince in Cinderella matching the slipper,” he said.

A bird-like surprise

One intriguing finding came from seven small, three-toed footprints discovered in South Africa dating back 210 million years. The AI confirmed earlier suggestions that they closely resemble bird tracks — despite being 60 million years older than the earliest known bird fossils.

Birds evolved from small feathered dinosaurs, but the discovery raises new questions.

“This doesn’t prove they were made by birds,” Brusatte said. “They may have been made by unknown dinosaur ancestors of birds or unrelated dinosaurs with bird-like feet. But it’s something we now have to seriously investigate.”