Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite
Dinosaur fossil site in Wyoming, US
Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite is an assemblage of fossil dinosaur footprints on public land near Shell, in Big Horn County, Wyoming.
They were discovered in 1997 by Erik P. Kvale, a research geologist from the Indiana Geological Survey.
The site is managed by the Bureau of Land Management as part of the Red Gulch/Alkali National Back Country Byway and is open to the public.
Fossils
The fossilized tracks are believed to have been made during the Middle Jurassic Period, 160–180 million years b.p., on what was then a shore of the Sundance Sea. Theropod tracks are thought to be among those discovered, but evidence suggests that the tracks were made by a large, diverse group of dinosaurs. Due to a rarity of Middle Jurassic theropods, the species that made the tracks is currently unknown. The majority of the footprints are in the area dubbed "the ballroom".
Besides the trackways, a variety of fossils can be found, including belemnites, crinoids, and shrimp burrows.
Geology
The tracksite is in a limestone layer in the lower part of the Sundance Formation. Its discovery was somewhat surprising, since the Sundance was historically considered to be marine in nature.
The public source identifies “Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite” as dinosaur fossil site in Wyoming, US. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gulch, Dinosaur and Tracksite.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7304210. Authority coordinates are 44.486, -107.787. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1997.
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This entry incorporates text from “Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.