Last September, photographer Elio Della Ferrera was exploring the remote Stelvio national park in northern Italy when he noticed something extraordinary on a vertical mountain wall: patterns that looked like footprints, stretching hundreds of meters across the rock face.
They weren't just footprints. They were thousands of dinosaur tracks—some up to 40cm (15 inches) in diameter—aligned in parallel rows, with clear traces of toes and claws preserved in stunning detail. The discovery represents one of the most significant paleontological finds in Italy's history, offering a window into dinosaur behavior from 210 million years ago.
"I never would have imagined I'd come across such a spectacular discovery in the region where I live," said Milan-based paleontologist Cristiano Dal Sasso, who has been studying the site. "This place was full of dinosaurs; it's an immense scientific treasure."
But here's what makes this find truly remarkable: the footprints don't just show individual dinosaurs passing through. They reveal coordinated herd movement, complex social behaviors including defensive formations, and evidence of rest stops where massive creatures lowered their forelimbs to the ground—behaviors paleontologists have theorized about but rarely seen preserved in the fossil record.
And it's all frozen on a vertical cliff face that was once a tidal flat, before the formation of the Alps lifted it to the sky.
The Triassic Tidal Flat That Became a Mountain
To understand this discovery, you need to travel back 210 million years to the Triassic period—between about 250 and 201 million years ago—when the geography of Europe looked nothing like it does today.
The vertical mountain wall where the footprints were found wasn't a mountain at all. It was a tidal flat—a coastal area that was periodically flooded and exposed by ocean tides. The soft, muddy ground was perfect for preserving footprints, which would have been baked hard by the sun during low tide before being covered by sediment during the next flood cycle.
Over millions of years, geological processes transformed that tidal flat. As the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided, they pushed up the Alpine mountain chain, lifting ancient coastal sediments thousands of feet into the air and rotating them nearly vertical.
The result: dinosaur footprints that were once on flat ground are now arrayed across a vertical cliff face in the Stelvio national park, northeast of Milan, near Italy's border with Switzerland.
This geological transformation is why the site is so remote and inaccessible. You can't walk up to these footprints—they're on a vertical wall in an area with no established paths. Instead, researchers will need to use drones and remote sensing technology to study them, according to the Italian culture ministry.
Meet the Prosauropods: Long-Necked Herbivores of the Triassic
Based on the size, shape, and arrangement of the footprints, paleontologists believe they were made by prosauropods—herbivorous dinosaurs that were among the dominant land animals during the late Triassic period.
Prosauropods were impressive creatures. They could grow up to 10 meters (33 feet) long, with long necks, small heads, and sharp claws. Despite their size, they primarily walked on two legs—a characteristic called bipedalism that many early dinosaurs shared.
But here's where the Stelvio footprints get interesting: while most of the tracks show typical two-legged walking patterns, some also include handprints in front of the footprints. This indicates that prosauropods would occasionally drop to all fours, probably to rest or perhaps to reach lower vegetation.
This detail matters because it provides direct evidence of behavior that can't be determined from bones alone. Skeletons tell us what dinosaurs looked like, but footprints tell us how they moved, how they interacted, and how they lived.
The claws visible in many of the prints also provide clues. While prosauropods were herbivores, their sharp claws would have been useful for stripping leaves from branches, digging for roots, and possibly for defense against predators.
The Herds That Moved in Harmony
One of the most significant aspects of the Stelvio discovery is what the footprints reveal about social behavior.
The tracks are aligned in parallel rows, indicating that multiple dinosaurs were moving together in the same direction—classic evidence of herd behavior. This coordination suggests these weren't just random individuals who happened to be in the same place at different times. They were traveling together, possibly for protection, to find food, or as part of seasonal migration patterns.
"The herds moved in harmony," Dal Sasso explained, describing patterns that show organized, coordinated movement across the tidal flat.
But the discovery goes beyond simple herd movement. According to Dal Sasso, "there are also traces of more complex behaviours, like groups of animals gathering in a circle, perhaps for the purposes of defence."
This circular formation is particularly fascinating. Modern animals like musk oxen form defensive circles when threatened, with adults facing outward to protect vulnerable young in the center. If that's what these prosauropods were doing 210 million years ago, it would be among the earliest evidence of such sophisticated group defensive behavior in the fossil record.
The implication is profound: these weren't simple creatures following basic instincts. They were social animals with complex behaviors, communication systems, and cooperative strategies for survival.
What Footprints Reveal That Bones Cannot
Paleontology typically focuses on bones—fossilized skeletons that tell us about anatomy, size, and evolutionary relationships. But trace fossils like footprints offer something entirely different: snapshots of behavior frozen in time.
From the Stelvio footprints, scientists can determine:
How fast they moved: The spacing between tracks reveals gait and speed. Were they walking leisurely or fleeing from danger?
Social structure: Parallel tracks show herd behavior. Size variations indicate adults and juveniles traveling together.
Physical capabilities: The transition between bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion shows flexibility in movement. Clear toe and claw marks reveal foot anatomy in detail that bones alone can't provide.
Environmental preferences: The tidal flat setting tells us these prosauropods were comfortable in coastal environments, possibly feeding on vegetation that grew in these transitional zones.
Defensive behaviors: The circular formations suggest threat response strategies that would be impossible to deduce from skeletons.
Population density: Thousands of footprints in one location indicate this wasn't a rare habitat for these creatures—it was a thriving ecosystem.
This is why Dal Sasso calls the site "an immense scientific treasure." It's not just about finding evidence that dinosaurs existed here. It's about understanding how they lived.
The Photographer's Accidental Discovery
Elio Della Ferrera wasn't looking for dinosaur footprints when he made his discovery. He was simply exploring and photographing the remote mountain landscapes of the Stelvio national park.
But his trained eye recognized patterns on the vertical rock face that seemed too regular, too organized to be random geological formations. When he investigated further, the truth became clear: he was looking at one of the most significant paleontological sites in Italy.
"I hope this discovery will spark reflection in all of us, highlighting how little we know about the places we live in: our home, our planet," Della Ferrera said, capturing the philosophical dimension of his find.
His statement touches on something profound: beneath our feet—or in this case, on the mountains around us—lies evidence of worlds that existed long before humans, waiting to be discovered by anyone observant enough to notice.
How many other significant sites are hiding in plain sight, waiting for someone to recognize them? How much history is embedded in the landscapes we pass through without truly seeing?
The Challenge of Studying a Vertical Site
The remarkable preservation of these footprints comes with a significant challenge: accessibility.
The site is remote, located in the Fraele valley near Italy's border with Switzerland in an area with no established paths. More importantly, the footprints are on a vertical wall—you can't simply walk up and examine them.
According to the Italian culture ministry, researchers will need to employ drones and remote sensing technology to study the site. This presents both challenges and opportunities.
Challenges:
- Physical examination is difficult or impossible for many tracks
- Close-up photography requires specialized equipment
- Three-dimensional mapping is essential but technically complex
- Weather and lighting conditions in mountain environments can limit access
Opportunities:
- Drones can capture perspectives and angles impossible for ground-based researchers
- Remote sensing can map the entire site comprehensively
- Digital models can be created and shared globally without disturbing the site
- The tracks remain protected from human interference that could damage them
Modern technology actually makes this vertical site easier to study comprehensively than it would have been even a decade ago. High-resolution drones, LIDAR scanning, and photogrammetry can create detailed three-dimensional models of every footprint, allowing paleontologists worldwide to study the site without ever visiting Italy.
The Olympic Connection
In a peculiar twist of timing and geography, the Stelvio discovery comes just as the region prepares to host the Winter Olympics next year. The national park is located near where Olympic events will take place, creating an unexpected connection between ancient and modern athletics.
The Italian Ministry of Culture couldn't resist the symbolic opportunity: "It's as if history itself wanted to pay homage to the greatest global sporting event, combining past and present in a symbolic passing of the baton between nature and sport."
It's a bit of poetic license, of course—the dinosaurs weren't thinking about future sporting events when they trudged across that Triassic tidal flat. But the juxtaposition is genuinely interesting: the same mountains that ancient creatures traversed will soon host the pinnacle of human athletic achievement.
The publicity from the Olympics could also benefit the scientific study of the site, raising international awareness and potentially securing funding for comprehensive research and preservation efforts.
What This Means for Italian Paleontology
While Italy is famous for its Roman ruins, Renaissance art, and archaeological treasures, it's less known for dinosaur fossils. The country's geological history—dominated by more recent mountain building and volcanic activity—hasn't produced the extensive dinosaur bonebeds found in places like Montana, China, or Argentina.
That makes the Stelvio discovery particularly significant for Italian science. It establishes northern Italy as an important location for understanding Triassic-period life in what was then coastal Europe.
The find also demonstrates that significant paleontological discoveries can still be made in well-traveled regions. The Stelvio national park isn't a remote wilderness like the Gobi Desert or the badlands of Alberta. It's a protected area in one of Europe's most developed countries, visited by hikers and tourists regularly.
Yet it took until 2024 for someone to recognize the significance of patterns on a mountain wall. How many other sites remain undiscovered, waiting for the right person to look up—or down—and see the past staring back at them?
The Science Still to Come
The discovery of the footprints is just the beginning. Now comes years of detailed study that will attempt to answer questions like:
How many individual dinosaurs are represented? Counting distinct trackways can estimate population size in this area.
What was the age structure of the herds? Footprint sizes can distinguish adults from juveniles.
Were multiple species present? Subtle variations in track morphology might reveal different types of prosauropods or even other dinosaurs.
What were environmental conditions like? The preservation quality, sediment analysis, and associated trace fossils can reconstruct the ancient ecosystem.
Can specific behaviors be identified? Detailed mapping might reveal feeding areas, resting spots, or trails leading to and from water sources.
What happened to these animals? Did they live and die in this area, or were they passing through during migration?
Each of these questions requires painstaking analysis of thousands of individual tracks, cross-referenced with geological data and compared to other Triassic sites worldwide.
A Window Into Deep Time
Standing before these footprints—or rather, viewing them through drone footage from a safe distance—is an exercise in perspective.
210 million years ago, creatures that would seem alien to us walked across muddy tidal flats where mountains now stand. They moved in coordinated groups, formed defensive circles, and occasionally stopped to rest their massive forelimbs on the ground.
The continents were in different positions. The climate was different. The oceans were different. Everything about Earth was different.
Yet these footprints remain, preserved by geological chance and lifted into the air by the slow collision of tectonic plates, waiting for a photographer with an observant eye to notice them.
It's a reminder of both the incomprehensible scale of geological time and the fragility of the evidence that survives. Most dinosaurs left no trace. Most footprints were washed away by the next tide. Most ecosystems vanished without leaving any record.
But sometimes—rarely—conditions are just right. Mud hardens at exactly the right moment. Sediment covers tracks before they erode. Geological forces preserve rather than destroy. And 210 million years later, we can see exactly where a long-necked herbivore placed its foot on a coastal plain that no longer exists.
"How little we know about the places we live in: our home, our planet," Della Ferrera said.
He's right. But with each discovery like this, we know a little bit more.
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