Welcome to the Paleozoic Trackways Foundation Website

The Paleozoic Trackways in the Robledo Mountains
Doña Ana County, New Mexico, U.S.A.

What are the Paleozoic Trackways? They are the most exciting scientific discovery ever made in the vicinity of Las Cruces and in the Robledo Mountains of Doña Ana County, New Mexico.

Twenty-two years ago, Trackways discoverer Jerry MacDonald, referring to the footprints of the Dimetrodon, a prehistoric animal pre-dating the dinosaurs, described them as “…footprints, including the layers preserving them, [are] revealing a marvelously wonderful order to everything—sequences, arrangements, classes, and ranks—with some of it sorted and organized as efficiently as a librarian would their library.”

It is presumed that the Robledo Mountains were once part of an “alluvion,” a land area created through the buildup of sediment from a receding body of water. Can you imagine looking at a period in time when the first creatures from a sea were beginning to crawl and walk on land?

The Paleozoic Trackways are considered one of the world’s most significant sources of pre-dinosaur fossil trackways, dated 280 million years old. The site is known as a “megatracksite” because of the quantity of footprints of numerous amphibians, reptiles, insects (including previously unknown species), plants, and petrified wood, which collectively provide new opportunities to understand animal behaviors and environments during that time. Scientists from all over the world have already declared the site a world class discovery.

MacDonald continues to discover more tracks in his ongoing quest to inform us of our ancient past. His most recent discoveries include petrified wood remnants of a large prehistoric forest and evidence of prehistoric jellyfish and worms. There seems to be no end to the wonders of the past contained in these mountains.