A tyrannosaur trackway at Glenrock, Lance Formation (Maastrichtian), Wyoming

During the Campanian and Maastrichtian ages (86–66 million years ago), tyrannosaurids were the predominant large carnivorous dinosaurs throughout the Northern hemisphere. Despite the abundance of skeletal material, the fossil-footprint record of tyrannosaurids has been limited. Here we report a tyrannosaurid trackway in the Lance Formation, Wyoming. The trackway consists of three sequential tracks on a sandstone surface. Based on the age and size of the footprints, the trackmaker can be identified as either a sub-adult Tyrannosaurus rex or a Nanotyrannus lancensis. The trackway offers a record of a tyrannosaurid pace length, which permits the speed of the trackmaker to be calculated at 4.5–8.0 km/h. This result discounts previous speculation that tyrannosaurid walking speeds were notably slower than those of other large theropods.