Imagine a time when South Africa’s coast was stomping grounds for dinosaurs—a world utterly different from the one we know today. But here’s where it gets fascinating: fossil hunters have just uncovered a new dinosaur track site on South Africa’s coast, and it’s the youngest ever found in the region, dating back a staggering 132 million years. This discovery flips the script on what we thought we knew about dinosaurs in southern Africa, especially after a massive lava eruption 182 million years ago seemingly silenced their fossil record for millions of years. Or did it?
Southern Africa has long been celebrated for its ancient fossils, particularly those from the distant past, including dinosaurs. However, after the inland Karoo Basin was engulfed by lava, the dinosaur fossil trail went eerily quiet during the Jurassic Period (201 million to 145 million years ago). And this is the part most people miss: recent discoveries are now revealing that dinosaurs didn’t just vanish—they thrived in the region long after the lava flows. In 2025, dinosaur tracks from the Cretaceous Period (145 million to 66 million years ago) were found for the first time in South Africa’s Western Cape, a groundbreaking find. But that was just the beginning.
Our team of ichnologists—scientists who study fossil tracks and traces—stumbled upon something extraordinary during a visit to the Knysna area of the Western Cape coast. While investigating coastal aeolianites (cemented sand dunes) typically much younger, we decided to explore a small patch of rock from the early Cretaceous Period. This tiny outcrop, no more than 40 meters long and five meters wide, is often submerged at high tide. We were hoping to find a dinosaur tooth, like the one discovered by a 13-year-old boy in 2017. Instead, Linda Helm, a member of our team, shouted in excitement: she had found dinosaur tracks. Further examination revealed over two dozen probable tracks, suggesting a bustling dinosaur presence in the region during the Cretaceous.
These tracks, estimated to be 132 million years old, are the youngest known in southern Africa—a full 50 million years younger than the youngest tracks from the Karoo Basin. They provide the second record of Cretaceous dinosaur tracks in South Africa and the Western Cape. Some are visible on rock surfaces, while others are embedded in the cliffs. But here’s where it gets controversial: while we’ve identified tracks from theropods (meat-eating bipedal dinosaurs), ornithopods (plant-eating bipedal dinosaurs), and possibly sauropods (massive quadrupedal herbivores), distinguishing between some of these tracks can be tricky. For instance, theropod and ornithopod tracks often look strikingly similar, and sauropod tracks lack clear digit impressions. So, while we’re confident in the abundance of tracks, pinpointing the exact dinosaur species behind them remains a challenge.
Southern Africa is a treasure trove of Mesozoic Era (252 million to 66 million years ago) vertebrate tracks, particularly in the Karoo Basin, a vast inland area filled with sedimentary deposits. Triassic and Jurassic dinosaur tracks are abundant in Lesotho and surrounding areas of South Africa’s Free State and Eastern Cape provinces. However, the Drakensberg Group lava flows buried many of these tracks, though some dinosaurs appear to have briefly survived the initial eruptions. As the supercontinent Gondwana fragmented at the end of the Jurassic and into the early Cretaceous, new terrestrial deposits formed in what are now South Africa’s Western and Eastern Cape provinces. While dinosaur body fossils have been found in these deposits—including stegosaurs, sauropods, and even hatchlings—the Western Cape’s dinosaur skeletal remains are scarce, limited to a few teeth and bones.
But now, the focus is shifting to their tracks. The Knysna tracks, located in the modern intertidal zone, offer a glimpse into a dramatically different landscape from 132 million years ago. Back then, the area was teeming with dinosaurs, possibly inhabiting tidal channels or river beaches, surrounded by vegetation unlike anything we see today. The discovery of these tracks in both the Robberg and Brenton Formations hints that more may be waiting to be found in other non-marine Cretaceous rock exposures across the Western and Eastern Cape. Systematic exploration is now crucial, not just for more dinosaur tracks but also for potential traces of other ancient vertebrates.
As we continue to uncover these prehistoric footprints, one question lingers: How much more evidence of southern Africa’s dinosaur legacy remains hidden, waiting to rewrite history? What do you think—are we only scratching the surface, or is this the tip of the iceberg? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
