San Juan de los Plátanos, Michoacán — Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has confirmed new dinosaur footprints. The INAH confirmed the discovery of 50 dinosaur footprints in Apatzingán, Michoacán earlier this month.
On Monday, the INAH confirmed the footprints were located in a stream bed by residents of the community of San Juan de los Plátanos who reported to the INAH Center in the state.
Specialists went to the site and identified footprints of two theropod carnivores, others similar to those of raptors and duck-billed dinosaurs. At least 50 fossilized dinosaur footprints of various species that inhabited a part of the current territory of Michoacán 65 million years ago were identified by specialists from the INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia), an agency of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico.
The Secretary of Culture of the Mexican Government, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, emphasized that “these footprints bring us closer to a history of Mexican territory from millions of years ago.
“The discovery began with a tip from the inhabitants of San Juan de los Plátanos, whom we acknowledge for their participation. Now, the commitment of the INAH is to study and protect this heritage with scientific rigor, to expand our knowledge about the life that existed in Mexico and to preserve this evidence for future generations,” she said in an October 26 statement.
After residents notified the institute of the presence of footprints of “giant animals”, the researcher from the INAH Michoacán Center, Raymundo Cervantes Barriga, went to the site to make the report and confirmed that they are footprints of herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs, of medium and large size.
The findings have been recorded across an area of 40 square meters, on a sedimentary rock platform at the river’s edge. Evidence suggests that these are a series of footprints belonging to different species, which could extend several meters further. The footprints range in size from 12 to 48 centimeters in length and up to 30 centimeters in width.
Based on preliminary findings and the morphology of the footprints (size, shape, number of toes and depth), the paleontologist attributes them to three dinosaur families: a large carnivorous theropod family, up to 4 meters tall, possibly the tyrannosaurid family, characterized by its three-toed footprint.
Another corresponds to smaller dinosaurs, up to 2 meters tall, similar to raptors (Dromaeosauridae), with three toes; and a herbivorous one, of the duck-billed type (Hadrosauridae), which could reach 4 meters in height, whose footprint shows three toes and rounded ends.
Cervantes Barriga explains that these species lived 65 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous, when that region must have had bodies of water, where animals came to feed.
Since October 21, 2026, a team of specialists from INAH began the work of documenting and registering the site, with large areas still left to review, so it is expected that the number of traces will increase.
Additionally, rock samples have been taken for study by geologist Jacinto Robles Camacho. Meanwhile, the Archaeology Department of the INAH Michoacán Center, under the direction of archaeologists María Fernanda Cabrera and José Luis Punzo Díaz, is conducting photogrammetry of the footprints, while biologist and paleontologist José Luis Ávila is responsible for recording them in molds. Paleontologist Carlos A. Hernández Luna is assisting with the preliminary identification.
“A discovery like this opens a window onto a period that we all have in our minds, but that we rarely have the opportunity to study. It is not yet determined how many species will be identified using paleontological study protocols, but, in the first observations, this variety of footprints can expand our knowledge about many aspects of dinosaurs in Mexico, such as locomotion, the direction of their movement and, therefore, the coexistence between species, their behavior and morphology,” said archaeologist Punzo Díaz.
Paleontologist Cervantes Barriga notes that in Michoacán, there are records of this type of footprint at three sites: Playa Azul, in Lázaro Cárdenas; El Aguaje, in Aguililla; and the border between Tiquicheo and Tuzantla.
This new site in Apatzingán would represent the fourth. In Mexico, there are just over 30 sites with dinosaur footprints registered with the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History), located in the states of Puebla, Coahuila, Oaxaca, Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango, and Michoacán.
“There are many paleontological sites, but few preserve evidence spanning such long periods. This site was located in an area of the country facing various social challenges, so a discovery like this can motivate the region’s populations, especially children,” he said.
