Dinosaur Footprints on the Otjihaenamaparero Farm

200-million-year-old ceratosaurus and syntarsus tracks can be found fossilized in the sandstone near Mt. Etjo

Category Geological Oddities

Image of Dinosaur Footprints on the Otjihaenamaparero Farm located in  | Syntarsus tracks

Syntarsus tracks

Image of Dinosaur Footprints on the Otjihaenamaparero Farm located in  | Syntarsus tracks Image of Dinosaur Footprints on the Otjihaenamaparero Farm located in  | syntarsus relative size Image of Dinosaur Footprints on the Otjihaenamaparero Farm located in  | Centosaurus tracks Image of Dinosaur Footprints on the Otjihaenamaparero Farm located in  | Ceratosaurus Relative size Image of Dinosaur Footprints on the Otjihaenamaparero Farm located in  | Ceratosaurus tracks
Geological Oddities http://atlasobscura.com/category/natural-wonders/geological-oddities

Near the center of Namibia, in the Kalkveld region, midway between the B1 and the C33 highways is the farm Otjihaenamaparero.

There exposed in the Etjo sandstone are 200-million-year-old dinosaur footprints that you can walk alongside. These types of fossils, such as footprints, burrows, and feeding marks are also known as "trace fossils" or "ichnofossils." There are two sets of tracks, and the first set that you come upon are the smaller syntarsus tracks ( a 10-foot-long pack hunter) that run for about 12 meters. The second set, a short distance away, are of ceratosaurus (a 20-foot-long hunter with a large nose-horn on its skull). There are two tracks that cross each other, one which runs about 30 meters and the other about 40 meters.

Nearby on the farm, visitors can camp, shower, enjoy brai (Namibian barbecue), or stay in the farm's guest house.

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