Historical Marker
Clayton Dinosaur Trackway
Clayton, Union County · New Mexico
Eight kinds is generous. The only published map of the spillway, made by Gillette and Thomas in 1985, sorted nearly 500 tracks into one ornithopod and three theropods, and most belong to plant-eaters like Tenontosaurus. The animals walked a sandflat at the edge of the Western Interior Seaway, not under it. A flood down Seneca Creek in 1982 washed the silt off the track surface. Tracks once read as a pterosaur's were reinterpreted in 1992 as those of several crocodiles.
What the plaque says
Official Scenic Historic Marker Clayton Dinosaur Trackway One of the best dinosaur track sites in the world can be viewed at Clayton Lake State Park. More than 500 fos- silized footprints, made by at least eight kinds of dinosaurs, are visible on the lake's spillway. These tracks were em- bedded in the mud over 100 million years ago, when most of New Mexico was a vast sea.
Where it stands
36.44123, -103.17787 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Black Jack Ketchum — steps away
- Santa Fe Trail — 1.1 mi
- Santa Fe Trail Cimarron Cutoff / Clayton — 1.2 mi
- Clayton — 1.6 mi