In a year-end wrap-up on this year’s archeology of note, science writer Isaac Schultz offers a look at an ancient culture’s apparent response to 65-million-year-old fossilized dinosaur footprints:

In March, a team announced the discovery of human petroglyphs found near dinosaur trackways in Brazil. Some of the artwork is abstract, though other petroglyphs seem to mimic the shape of the prints, which were left by sauropods, theropods, and ornithopods. Though the team did not directly date the etchings or the trackways, its research—published in Scientific Reports—indicated that ancient humans in the area ascribed some meaning to the prints.

“Human sketches near dinosaur footprints,” December 17, 2024

From his story last spring when the journal article was published:

The dinosaur tracks belong to theropods, sauropods, and iguanodontians, and are spread across three rock outcroppings in the Brazilian state of Paraíba. The petroglyphs on the site consist primarily of circular patterns, but several look very much like the tridactyl dinosaur tracks also present on the site. …

Neither the trackways nor the petroglyphs have been directly dated, but human burials dating to 10,000 years ago were previously found at two nearby sites. One of those sites, Pedra do Alexandre, has burials spanning from 9,400 years old to 2,620 years old, indicating there’s still a wide time frame in which the petroglyphs could have been carved. But the petroglyphs placement, and the design of some of the figures, was clearly inspired by the much more ancient trackways.

“Ancient Humans Left Drawings Next to Dinosaur Footprints in Brazil,” March 26, 2024

The open access paper notes other known instances of ancient human cultural activity around fossil dinosaur trackways but adds,

… in none of these instances do the petroglyphs display such a close-knit relationship with the footprints as in Serrote do Letreiro, where it is unquestionable that the engravers acknowledged the footprints and intentionally executed the petroglyphs around them, establishing a symbolic connection between human graphic expression and the fossil record.

Troiano, L.P., dos Santos, H.B., Aureliano, T. et al. A remarkable assemblage of petroglyphs and dinosaur footprints in Northeast Brazil. Sci Rep 14, 6528 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-56479-3Troiano, L.P., dos Santos, H.B., Aureliano, T. et al. A remarkable assemblage of petroglyphs and dinosaur footprints in Northeast Brazil. Sci Rep 14, 6528 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-56479-3

Sadly, with no written record, we can’t know how the ancient inhabitants interpreted the unknown giant tracks, only that they sensed they were special.