STELVIO NATIONAL PARK, ITALY—In a discovery described by paleontologists as “surpassing fantasy,” a wildlife photographer has stumbled upon one of the world’s most significant dinosaur trackways, hidden in plain sight on a near-vertical rock face 2,800 meters above sea level.
Officials announced Tuesday that as many as 20,000 footprints, dating back 210 million years to the Late Triassic Period, have been identified across a five-kilometer stretch of the Fraele Valley in the Italian Alps. The sheer scale of the site—now dubbed a “Valley of the Dinosaurs”—ranks it among the richest paleontological finds in European history.
The Photographer’s Intuition
The discovery was made by Elio Della Ferrera, a wildlife photographer who had set out in September to document deer and bearded vultures. While training his high-powered lens on a massive dolomite wall roughly 600 meters above the nearest road, he noticed unusual, rhythmic indentations in the rock.
- The Scale: Upon scaling the wall with difficulty to get a closer look, Della Ferrera realized the markings weren’t just a few isolated tracks but an immense scientific archive. “The huge surprise was discovering such a huge quantity,” he said. “There are really tens of thousands of prints up there.”
- Tectonic Time Capsule: What is now a nearly vertical cliff was, 210 million years ago, a flat, muddy tidal plain near the prehistoric Tethys Ocean. Over millions of years, the collision of tectonic plates that formed the Alps folded these horizontal mudflats into the towering vertical walls seen today.
- Preservation: Because the tracks were impressed into soft, fine-grained mud that solidified quickly, the detail is remarkable. Paleontologists noted clear impressions of individual toes and sharp claws, some reaching up to 40 centimeters in width.
Herds in Harmony
Initial analysis by Cristiano Dal Sasso, a lead paleontologist at the Milan Natural History Museum, suggests the tracks were left by prosauropods—long-necked, bipedal herbivores similar to the Plateosaurus. These creatures could reach lengths of 10 meters and weigh up to four tons.
The site offers a rare glimpse into prehistoric social behavior:
- Group Migration: The footprints are arranged in parallel rows, indicating that these massive herbivores traveled in large, coordinated herds.
- Defensive Formations: Researchers identified circular patterns where the tracks converge, suggesting the animals may have gathered in formations to protect young specimens from predators.
- A “Calm” Pace: Dal Sasso noted that the spacing of the tracks indicates the animals were moving at a “slow, calm, quiet rhythmic pace,” rather than fleeing in a panic.
A ‘Gift’ for the 2026 Winter Olympics
The discovery site is located just two kilometers from the mountain town of Bormio, which is set to host Alpine skiing events during the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
Lombardy Regional Governor Attilio Fontana hailed the find as a “precious gift from remote eras” that enhances the prestige of the Olympic venue. However, due to the site’s extreme altitude and inaccessibility, there are currently no plans for public access. Researchers intend to use drones and remote sensing technology to map the “vertical museum” over the coming decades.
“This is an immense scientific heritage that will take decades to study,” Dal Sasso said, noting that the discovery fundamentally rewrites the map of where dinosaurs roamed in prehistoric Europe.