<\/p>\n
Workers excavate incredibly rare dinosaur tracks from the Paluxy River near Glen Rose, Texas, during the 1930s.<\/p>\n
American Museum of Natural History<\/p>\n
Upgrading a Texas paleontology treasure, Austin philanthropists Sarah and Ernest Butler have given $5 million to build a new home for the famed Paluxy River dinosaur tracks at the Texas Museum of Science and Natural History.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The 113-million-year-old dinosaur trackways were discovered near Glen Rose, Texas, during the 1930s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
In thanks for the gift, the University of Texas museum will name the new structure\u00a0the\u00a0Sarah and Ernest Butler Dinosaur Trackways Building. It will house the conserved fossils and create a new visitor experience on the grounds just north of the museum.<\/p>\n
Thursday night, the couple was saluted in the museum’s soaring atrium by about 100 museum followers as designs for the new building were unveiled.<\/p>\n
“We’ve watched the footprints over the years and knew they were threatened,” Sarah Butler said. She and her family helped pay for the initial conservation survey that guided what would happen to the fossils.<\/p>\n
The project will preserve and showcase the fossilized footprints of a massive sauropod dinosaur and a theropod predator that were preserved in limestone along the Paluxy River \u2014 160 miles north of Austin \u2014 during the early Cretaceous period. The\u00a0trackways represent one of the most significant dinosaur footprint discoveries in North America.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to safeguard one of Texas\u2019 most\u00a0iconic fossil discoveries,\u201d said Carolyn Connerat, the museum\u2019s managing director, who announced that fundraising will continue for the $10 million project. \u201cWith the Butlers\u2019 support, we will preserve these remarkable fossils while creating new ways for visitors, students and researchers to engage with Texas\u2019 deep natural history.\u201d<\/p>\n
What exactly are the\u00a0dinosaur tracks?<\/p>\n
Paleontologist Roland T. Bird first identified the trackways in the 1930s, at a time when Texans felt the state’s scientific and cultural artifacts were being to sent to distant cultural capitals. He oversaw the removal of two large limestone slabs containing the tracks. One slab was sent to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, while the other was brought to Austin through a Work Projects Administration effort and installed at UT\u2019s Texas Memorial Museum, today known as the Texas Science & Natural History Museum.<\/p>\n
According to museum materials, the sauropod trackway\u00a0preserved across the slabs includes fore- and hind-foot impressions scientifically described as brontopodus birdi, named in Bird\u2019s honor. These fossils remain designated reference specimens for this type of dinosaur footprint and continue to play an important role in paleontological research.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
A scientific and cultural museum back in business<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An artist’s render of the new Sarah and Ernest Butler Dinosaur Trackways Building to be built at the Texas Museum of Science and Natural History.<\/p>\n
Texas Museum of Science and Natural History<\/p>\n
Right-sized when it was built as part of the 1936 Texas Centennial, what was formerly known as the Texas Memorial Museum became a hidden retreat on campus during the late 20th century. From 1940 to 2013, the Texas slabs of tracks were housed in a small stone building adjacent to the museum, approximately where the new structure will go.<\/p>\n
Schoolchildren continued to arrive in buses to see the exhibits, but many UT students and visitors had no idea how the art deco building functioned. It seemed that the Texas Memorial Museum was a musty afterthought on the burgeoning UT campus.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
“It was like a mausoleum before they redid it,” said backer Rita Kreisle. “Before they took down those dark curtains and let the light in.”<\/p>\n