Dinosaur footprints confirmed in Thailand after tourist’s photo
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Thai tourist Pichai Prathetsena took a photograph of an impression on a rock in Phu Hin Chom That. Phu Phrabat National Park in Udon Thani, Thailand, and shared it online.
Other social media users suggested the mark might be a dinosaur footprint, prompting park rangers to investigate. The rangers initially thought the tracks could be from a carnivorous dinosaur over 130 million years old.
The Department of Mineral Resources later confirmed the impressions were genuine dinosaur footprints dating back around 120 million years. They found six footprints forming a single trackway preserved in sandstone, each measuring approximately 29 centimetres long and 26 centimetres wide. The department estimates the dinosaur was about 1.42 metres tall at the hip and 6.3 metres long, similar in size to Siamotyrannus isanensis, another theropod dinosaur found in Thailand.
Initial ranger measurements differed, reporting larger footprints around 34 by 32 centimetres and estimating a dinosaur seven to eight metres long. The Department of Mineral Resources has requested that the Departments of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and Fine Arts create a protected area around the site, acting under the Fossil Protection Act of 2008. Officials intend to develop the location for education, research, and tourism.
