Empreintes de Pas de Dinosaures, Archaeological site in Millau, France
Empreintes de Pas de Dinosaures is an open-air archaeological site near Millau, in the Aveyron, where dinosaur footprints are preserved in flat limestone slabs. Around thirty tracks are visible on the site, left by three-toed dinosaurs that walked through marshy ground during the Early Jurassic period.
The tracks were formed over 200 million years ago, when the region was covered by shallow, marshy water where these animals left their marks in soft mud that later hardened into rock. The site near Peyre was first identified in 1997 by local palaeontologist Jacques Sciau, who has continued uncovering new sections ever since, with a notable find in 2023.
The site sits next to Peyre, a village built into a cliff and listed among the most beautiful in France, with a cave church carved into the rock. Visitors naturally move between the two places, comparing ancient animal tracks in stone with the traces left by early human communities.
The site is reached on foot from the parking area called "Le Rocher" above the village of Peyre, following a short path of a few minutes that leads directly to the slabs. Panels on site explain what you are looking at, so no prior knowledge is needed to make sense of the tracks.
The largest footprint on the site measures over 50 cm long and is considered one of the biggest dinosaur tracks known in the world, yet it sits almost flush with the flat rock and can easily be missed if you are not looking carefully. The dinosaur that left it was estimated to be around 9 m long, which makes the relatively shallow depth of the print all the more surprising.
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