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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Colorado’s “dinosaur dance-off” was probably a courtship and display arena—but not a fossilized mating scene. Researchers identified 25 reliable new scrape traces made by unidentified non-avian theropods at Dinosaur Ridge, near Morrison west of Denver.
The clustered marks in Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone may show that multiple dinosaurs repeatedly gathered, scraped the ground, and displayed around nest-like depressions. That conclusion is supported by trace shape and distribution, then strengthened by comparisons with living birds. The exact species, sex of the animals, choreography, and whether mating occurred are all unknown.
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What was found at Dinosaur Ridge?
The 2025 study identified 25 reliable new scrape traces on two sandstone bedding planes at Dinosaur Ridge. The marks were made by bipedal, non-avian theropods clawing or kicking at sandy sediment—not by dinosaurs leaving ordinary footprints.
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The traces belong to the established trace-fossil type Ostendichnus bilobatus. They are generally large, bilaterally symmetrical impressions with two lobes or troughs, a central ridge, and parallel or nearly parallel claw-like scratches.
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The researchers first located 36 putative features in aerial imagery. After reviewing them, they classified 25 as reliable new traces, five as features requiring additional field investigation, and six as erosional marks. The new discoveries bring the documented total of relevant Ostendichnus traces in Colorado’s Dakota Group, Naturita Formation, and related units to 133, according to the study’s conclusion.
That is the physical evidence behind the colorful “dance-off” headline. There is no fossil record of a dinosaur literally dancing, and the site does not preserve a confirmed mating event.
Why researchers think it was a dinosaur courtship arena
The interpretation comes from the concentration, arrangement, and variety of the scrapes. At Dinosaur Ridge and other North American sites, the traces occur in dense groups. Some overlap, while others form clusters on the same restricted surfaces. That pattern suggests repeated use by multiple animals rather than one isolated dinosaur scraping once.
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Researchers compare the behavior with displays made by living birds. Modern birds sometimes gather at a lek—a courtship site where individuals display to potential mates. Other birds scrape shallow depressions, build or advertise nest-like structures, and perform visual movements around them. A study comparison discussed by ABC News involved banded plovers, whose males may make a display scrape or nest and then move around it conspicuously.
Some Dinosaur Ridge traces are shallow and simple. Others are elongated, overprinted, or bowl-shaped. The elongated marks could reflect repeated clawing or kicking during a display. The bowl-like forms may represent completed or attempted nest-display structures. Together, those features are compatible with a social display ground in which animals repeatedly prepared, altered, or advertised scrapes.
“Compatible with” is important. The researchers’ case is behavioral and comparative, not a direct observation. They argue that a courtship or display arena explains the evidence better than several alternatives, including feeding, drinking, territorial marking, an ordinary nesting colony, or isolated nest construction. It remains a probable lek-like interpretation, not an indisputable reconstruction of dinosaur behavior.
What the fossils establish—and what they do not
| Question | What the evidence supports |
|---|---|
| Were dinosaurs involved? | Yes. The morphology and setting are consistent with scraping by non-avian theropods. |
| Was this a concentrated activity area? | Yes. The traces occur in clusters and dense concentrations on more than one bedding surface. |
| Was it a courtship or display site? | Probably, based on the trace patterns and comparisons with living birds, but the behavior is inferred. |
| Was mating proven? | No. The traces do not show copulation, successful mating, or the presence of females. |
| Were all the tracemakers males? | Unknown. The sex of the dinosaurs cannot be determined from these marks. |
| Was it the world’s largest dinosaur mating ground? | Not established. It is safer to describe it as a major or among the largest known concentrations of this type of trace, unless a specific comparison is verified. |
The headline’s “dance-off” image is therefore a useful popular shorthand for repeated display behavior. It should not be read as proof that scientists know the choreography, watched the animals perform, or identified a mating season.
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Which dinosaurs made the scrapes?
The exact species is unknown. The study identifies the tracemakers as non-avian theropods—bipedal meat-eating dinosaurs in the broad anatomical group that includes many familiar species—but it does not assign the new traces to a named dinosaur.
Trace fossils rarely preserve enough body anatomy to identify a precise species. A scrape can reveal what an animal did and something about its size or movement, but it usually cannot provide the diagnostic bones needed for a species-level identification. In particular, there is no basis in the published study for saying that the scrapes were made by Acrocanthosaurus or another specific dinosaur.
Earlier interpretive work estimated the animals at approximately 1–2 meters in hip height and roughly 2.5–5 meters in body length. Popular coverage sometimes compares them with an emu or ostrich. That is a broad size analogy, not an identification: the safest description is small-to-medium bipedal theropods.
A 100-million-year-old coastal setting
The scrape surfaces are preserved in the Cenomanian Dakota Sandstone, deposited roughly 100 million years ago during the middle part of the Cretaceous Period. At that time, the region lay near the western margin of the Western Interior Seaway, a large inland sea that divided much of North America.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesThe area around Colorado’s modern Front Range was not the mountainous landscape visitors see today. It included coastal plains and sedimentary environments near the seaway. The National Park Service describes this interval as a time when Colorado’s Front Range region accumulated extensive dinosaur tracks and other fossil evidence.
Dinosaur Ridge, near Morrison and about 20 miles west of Denver in common media descriptions, is part of the Morrison-Golden Fossil Areas National Natural Landmark. The locality is especially important because it preserves evidence from both Jurassic and Cretaceous environments. These newly recognized scrapes add behavioral information to a site already known for dinosaur tracks, bones, and other fossil resources.
How researchers found the hidden-looking traces
The research team used high-resolution aerial imagery and photogrammetry, including drone-derived images, to examine broad sandstone surfaces. The 2025 investigation compared earlier U.S. Geological Survey aerial imagery with imagery collected in 2024.
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This approach matters because a scrape may be difficult to recognize from ground level. From above, researchers can see the shape, spacing, overlap, and orientation of many marks at once. Photogrammetry also helps create three-dimensional documentation of the surfaces, making it possible to compare the Dinosaur Ridge examples with previously documented Ostendichnus traces.
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The method strengthens the case that the features form a meaningful concentration rather than a collection of unrelated scratches. It cannot, however, recover information that was never preserved. Aerial imagery cannot reveal the animals’ sex, prove that potential mates watched the displays, identify the exact sequence of movements, or show that mating occurred.
Why this discovery matters for understanding dinosaur behavior
Most people picture paleontology as the study of bones. Those body fossils can reveal anatomy, growth, diet, and evolutionary relationships. Trace fossils preserve something different: behavior.
A scrape can record an action that happened only briefly but was repeated by many animals. In this case, the marks may preserve a social ritual—preparing a scrape, enlarging it, overlapping another animal’s work, or displaying around it. That gives researchers a rare way to investigate how dinosaurs interacted with one another rather than merely how their skeletons were built.
Living birds provide the closest modern behavioral comparisons because birds are the surviving branch of theropod dinosaurs. The comparison is useful, but it is not proof that Cretaceous theropods behaved exactly like banded plovers or any other modern species. Evolution can produce similar behaviors in unrelated or distantly related animals, and ancient environments introduced conditions that no living bird experiences today.
Can you visit the Colorado dinosaur site?
Yes. The Dinosaur Ridge Trail is free and open daily from sunrise to sunset, according to the organization’s visitor information. The main visitor center is listed at 16831 West Alameda Parkway, Morrison, Colorado. Dinosaur Ridge also operates an exhibit hall, discovery center, guided bus tours, and reserved walking tours.
The organization’s currently published spring–fall schedule lists visitor-center hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and guided bus departures from approximately 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Winter hours differ, and schedules, tour availability, trail conditions, and access can change. Check the current information before traveling.
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Visitors should also remember that the site is a protected fossil locality. Fossils and trace surfaces should be observed without touching, collecting, or altering them.
Keep exploring the discovery
A general dinosaur field guide can be a useful educational companion for learning the difference between body fossils, footprints, and behavioral trace fossils. It will not identify the exact theropods that made the Dinosaur Ridge scrapes, because the species remains unknown, but it can help readers place the discovery within the wider dinosaur fossil record.
For families, a dinosaur activity book can turn the visit into a comparison exercise: look for the difference between a footprint and a scrape, sketch the shape of a trace, and ask which observations are evidence and which are interpretation. Dinosaur Ridge also offers official educational materials including the Dinosaur Ridge Family Field Guide and Fossils & Fun Workbook; availability and pricing should be checked through the organization’s current visitor information. Free educational resources may also be available, so distinguish those from paid products or tours.
The most accurate way to describe the discovery is not that scientists found dinosaurs caught dancing. They found a concentrated set of fossilized theropod scrapes—25 reliable new examples on Cretaceous sandstone—that may preserve one of the clearest signs yet of a repeated dinosaur display arena.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did scientists really find dinosaurs dancing?
No. The “dance-off” wording is a popular description of the researchers’ behavioral interpretation. The fossils are clawed scrape traces, not a preserved sequence of dinosaur movements. Their concentration and shape may indicate repeated courtship or nest-display behavior, but no literal dance was observed or fossilized.
What is an Ostendichnus trace?
They are fossilized activity traces attributed to non-avian theropods. The traces are typically bilobed or oval impressions with paired troughs, a central ridge, and parallel or subparallel claw-like scratches. The formal trace-fossil name discussed in the study is Ostendichnus bilobatus.
What kind of dinosaur made the scrapes?
The species has not been identified. The marks are consistent with small-to-medium bipedal theropods, with earlier estimates placing the animals at about 1–2 meters in hip height and 2.5–5 meters in body length. The study does not assign them to Acrocanthosaurus or another named dinosaur.
Can visitors see the dinosaur dance-off site in Colorado?
Yes. Dinosaur Ridge Trail is reported as free and open daily from sunrise to sunset. The site is at 16831 West Alameda Parkway in Morrison, Colorado, and also offers visitor-center exhibits and guided tours. Trail conditions and seasonal hours can change, and not every newly documented trace is necessarily visible from the public route.
The Bottom Line
Colorado’s “dance-off” site is a probable dinosaur courtship or display arena, not a fossilized mating scene. The 25 new Ostendichnus bilobatus traces show repeated scraping by unidentified non-avian theropods about 100 million years ago, while the social behavior, species, sex, and outcome remain inferred or unknown.
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