High above the future slopes of the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, a vertical Alpine rock face has turned into an open-air archive of deep time, exposing thousands of dinosaur footprints that had been hiding in plain sight. The discovery, stretching for miles across northern Italy’s mountains, has stunned scientists who now see the Olympic valleys as one of the richest windows into the Triassic world anywhere in Europe. What began as a wildlife photography outing has rapidly become a race to document and protect a 210 million year old landscape before global attention and construction reshape the region.
The tracks, pressed into what was once a muddy floodplain and later lifted into the sky by tectonic forces, capture herds of long-necked herbivores and their predators moving across a coastal plain that predated the Alps themselves. As researchers fan out across the cliffs and ravines, they are piecing together how these animals lived, migrated and interacted, all within sight of where skiers will soon chase medals down Olympic runs.
From wildlife shoot to world-class discovery
The story begins with a single camera and a patient observer. A wildlife photographer named Della Ferrera set out earlier this year to capture images of deer and vultures in the high country above the Italian valleys slated to host Alpine events. While scanning a sheer rock wall through a telephoto lens, he noticed repeating shapes that looked too regular to be random fractures, and curiosity pulled him closer until the outlines resolved into distinct dinosaur footprints marching across the stone. What had been a routine day in the field suddenly became a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with deep history, as he realized the wall was covered in tracks that continued far beyond the frame of any single shot, a revelation later confirmed in detailed reporting on Della Ferrera and his find.
Once paleontologists were alerted, they quickly recognized that this was not an isolated patch of fossils but part of a vast trackway system etched into multiple Alpine faces. Surveys now suggest that the prints extend for miles along the mountainsides, forming continuous sequences that record animals walking, turning and sometimes overlapping each other’s paths. The scale of the site, combined with its proximity to the Milan-Cortina venues, has transformed Della Ferrera from a quiet observer of wildlife into the accidental catalyst for what experts describe as one of the most spectacular dinosaur track discoveries in decades, a shift that has been traced in accounts of how his camera work first revealed the Italian cliffs’ hidden past.
A Triassic crossroads above the Olympic slopes
What makes this site extraordinary is not only the number of tracks but also their age. Geologists and paleontologists working in the area say the footprints were pressed into soft sediment roughly 210 million years ago, during the late Triassic Period and a time when the supercontinent Pangea still shaped global geography. That figure, often cited as about 210 m years, places the trackways at a pivotal moment when early dinosaurs were diversifying and spreading into new environments, a context that has been underscored in reports describing how the prints date back around 210 m years to the Triassic Period and their makers’ world.
At that time, the region that would become northern Italy was a low-lying coastal plain, laced with rivers and lagoons rather than jagged peaks and ski lifts. The animals that left their marks walked across mudflats and shallow channels, leaving impressions that were later buried, lithified and eventually hoisted thousands of meters into the air as the Alps rose. Today, those same surfaces hang almost vertically above valleys preparing for Olympic crowds, turning the mountains into a kind of tilted stage where Triassic life and modern sport share the same narrow strip of sky. The juxtaposition is especially striking near the planned Alpine skiing courses, where officials have noted that the future race slopes sit within sight of a site that may hold around Thousands of tracks laid down more than 200 million years ago.
How many footprints, and what they reveal
As teams have begun to map the rock faces in detail, the numbers have quickly grown from a handful of visible impressions to a staggering census of ancient steps. Current estimates suggest that the broader area may preserve around 20,000 individual footprints, a figure that would place it among the largest dinosaur track sites known in Europe. These impressions are not scattered randomly but often appear in parallel lines that record the passage of multiple animals moving in the same direction, a pattern that hints at herd behavior and repeated use of the same routes, and that has been highlighted in coverage describing an estimated 20,000 footprints near the Olympic venue.
Some of the tracks are so sharply preserved that individual toe pads and claw marks are visible, allowing researchers to distinguish between different species and even infer how the animals distributed their weight as they walked. In a few cases, overlapping prints show where one dinosaur stepped into the fading impression of another, capturing a fleeting moment of interaction that would otherwise be lost to time. Paleontologists have described the site as one of the most spectacular footprint assemblages in decades, noting that the density and clarity of the impressions provide a rare chance to study dinosaur locomotion and social behavior at landscape scale, a level of detail that has been emphasized in assessments of how Some of the tracks rank among the most spectacular discoveries in recent memory.
Who walked here: long-necked herbivores and their world
Identifying the trackmakers is a puzzle that blends anatomy, geology and a bit of detective work. The majority of the prints appear to have been made by long-necked bipedal herbivores, animals that walked on two legs and could reach up to 10 meters in length, or about 33 feet from head to tail. These dinosaurs would have towered over the floodplain, using their height to browse vegetation and scan for predators, and their size is inferred from the spacing and depth of the tracks as well as the proportions of the footprints themselves, a reconstruction supported by reports that the prints likely came from herbivores up to 10 meters, or 33 feet, long.
Some specialists have suggested that at least part of the assemblage could be attributed to animals similar to Plateosaurus, a well known Triassic herbivore with a long neck, sturdy hind limbs and a relatively small head. The three toed prints, with their characteristic proportions and stride length, match what would be expected from such dinosaurs moving across soft ground. The presence of multiple track sizes, from juveniles to large adults, hints at mixed age groups traveling together, which in turn suggests complex social structures rather than solitary wandering. These interpretations build on detailed analyses of the footprint shapes and their distribution, work that has been described in accounts of how the site’s tracks have been linked to long necked herbivores and possible relatives of Thousands of Triassic plant eaters.
Stelvio’s cliffs and the geography of a fossil treasure
The tracks are not confined to a single outcrop but spread across a network of cliffs and ridges in and around Stelvio National Park, one of Italy’s most dramatic protected landscapes. Here, steep Alpine walls rise abruptly from forested valleys, their pale limestone bands recording ancient shorelines and riverbeds that have been tilted almost upright. It is on these vertical canvases that the dinosaur footprints appear, sometimes in dense clusters and sometimes as solitary trails that vanish around a corner or into a scree slope, a pattern that has been documented in accounts of how photographers and scientists traced the tracks across Stelvio National Park.
Accessing many of these surfaces is a logistical challenge that blends mountaineering with field science. Researchers must often rope up and traverse narrow ledges to reach the best preserved sections, working quickly in windows of stable weather before snow or ice obscures the details. The same topography that makes the region a magnet for skiers and hikers also complicates conservation, since rockfalls, freeze thaw cycles and human traffic can all damage the fragile impressions. Yet the park’s protected status offers a measure of security, giving Italian authorities a framework to manage both tourism and scientific access as they weigh how to showcase the tracks without putting them at risk, a balance that has been central to discussions of how the Winter Olympic venues intersect with the fossil rich Alpine valleys of Italy.
Olympic ambitions meet a 210 million year old neighbor
The discovery arrives at a delicate moment for the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, which are driving new investment in roads, lifts and lodging across the region. Several of the key competition sites sit within a short distance of the dinosaur trackways, including slopes earmarked for Alpine skiing and other marquee events. That proximity has forced organizers and local officials to confront a rare planning puzzle, as they try to accommodate global sporting ambitions while also safeguarding a paleontological resource that predates humanity by hundreds of millions of years, a tension that has been noted in reports on how the Winter Olympic venues lie near a site where Italy‘s Winter Olympic plans intersect with miles of tracks.
So far, the response has leaned toward integration rather than conflict. Local leaders have spoken about using the Games as a platform to highlight the region’s deep history, envisioning educational exhibits, guided tours and interpretive centers that could introduce visitors to the Triassic landscape behind the modern spectacle. At the same time, scientists are urging caution, warning that increased foot traffic and infrastructure could accelerate erosion or vandalism if not carefully managed. The challenge will be to design access routes, viewing platforms and protective measures that allow people to experience the tracks without trampling them, a balance that will likely shape how the Olympic legacy is judged long after the last medal ceremony in the valleys below the fossil rich Olympics sites.
Scientists stunned by the quality of preservation
For paleontologists accustomed to working with fragmentary bones and partial trackways, the Alpine discovery feels almost too generous. Many of the footprints preserve not only the overall shape of the foot but also fine details such as skin impressions, claw grooves and subtle ridges where mud squished up between the toes. These features allow researchers to reconstruct how the animals’ feet flexed with each step and how the substrate responded, offering insights into both anatomy and ancient climate conditions. The clarity of the impressions has led several experts to describe the site as a once in a generation find, a sentiment echoed in accounts that frame the mass footprint discovery in Italy as one of the most spectacular in decades.
Equally striking is the way the tracks capture behavior rather than just anatomy. In some sequences, the spacing of the prints suggests that the animals were walking at a steady, unhurried pace, while in others the stride lengthens and the impressions deepen, hinting at faster movement or a change in terrain. A few trackways show subtle swerves or pauses, as if the dinosaur hesitated or shifted direction mid step. These patterns give scientists a rare chance to study how Triassic herbivores navigated their environment in real time, turning the rock face into a storyboard of daily life. The emotional impact of seeing such vivid traces has been clear in interviews with researchers and photographers who describe being left speechless, a reaction captured in accounts of a nature photographer who was Tui staff member turned witness to a spectacular dinosaur discovery while photographing wildlife.
Tourism, education and the risk of loving it to death
The revelation that Olympic visitors could stand within sight of a 210 million year old trackway has already sparked interest from tour operators, schools and local businesses eager to fold the fossils into their plans. There is clear potential for a new kind of geotourism that pairs ski passes with guided walks, museum exhibits and classroom programs about the Triassic Period and its inhabitants. Educational institutions are exploring partnerships that would bring students to the region for field courses, using the tracks as a gateway to teach geology, climate science and evolutionary biology in a setting that feels more like an adventure than a lecture hall, an idea that has been floated in coverage of how a photographer’s discovery near Italy’s Winter Olympic venues, documented in images by Piero Cruciatti of AFP via Getty, could reshape how visitors experience the mountains.
Yet the very appeal of the site carries risks. Unregulated access could lead to people walking directly on the tracks, chipping off pieces as souvenirs or inadvertently accelerating erosion by concentrating foot traffic on fragile ledges. Climate change adds another layer of vulnerability, as shifting freeze thaw cycles and more intense storms threaten to break apart exposed surfaces. Conservationists are urging authorities to move quickly to map and stabilize the most important sections, potentially using 3D scanning and digital modeling to create backups that can be studied even if the originals are damaged. The hope is to strike a balance where the tracks become a centerpiece of regional identity and education without being loved to death by the very audiences they inspire, a concern that has surfaced in discussions of how a photographer’s find near the Winter Olympic venue, captured in images credited to Piero Cruciatti of AFP via Getty, could reshape tourism.
A rare alignment of deep time and global spotlight
What sets this discovery apart is the timing. The Milan-Cortina Winter Games were already poised to draw global attention to northern Italy’s mountains, with television cameras, journalists and visitors converging on valleys that, until now, were known mainly for their pistes and villages. The emergence of a vast dinosaur trackway complex in the same landscape creates a rare alignment between deep time and contemporary spectacle, offering a chance to tell a story that stretches from Triassic floodplains to modern ski runs in a single panoramic shot. For scientists, it is an opportunity to bring paleontology out of the lab and into the public eye, using the Olympic spotlight to highlight how much of Earth’s history is still written into the rocks beneath our feet, a narrative that has been woven through reports on how a photographer’s discovery near Italy’s Winter Olympic venues, documented by Italy‘s Alpine slopes, has stunned experts.
For local communities, the tracks could become a long term legacy that outlasts the Games themselves. While Olympic infrastructure often faces questions about what happens after the closing ceremony, a 210 million year old fossil site offers a built in answer: it can anchor museums, research centers and educational programs for generations. The challenge will be to ensure that decisions made in the rush of Olympic preparation do not compromise that potential. If managed well, the same valleys that host medal runs in the coming years could, decades from now, be equally famous as a place where visitors come to trace the footsteps of long necked herbivores across Alpine stone and to imagine a time when the only tracks in these mountains belonged to dinosaurs, a vision that has been reinforced in accounts of how a wildlife photographer’s find near the Italian Winter Olympic venue, first detailed in reports on Dec discoveries, has rewritten the story of the host region.
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