Fossil Tracks
The Martin Lockley Fossil Track Collection
The Martin Lockley Track Collection at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History (UCM) was primarily built by Dr. Martin Lockley. Initially, Lockley focused his research on fossil brachiopods. However, in the 1980s, when he became a professor at the University of Colorado at Denver (UCD), he was invited to investigate dinosaur tracks in a Colorado coal mine. Recognizing that few researchers were studying fossil tracks at the time, Lockley shifted his focus and dedicated the next 40 years to the study of fossil footprints.
Lockley’s main collecting and research focus concentrated on tracksites in the Rocky Mountain region, but he also conducted fieldwork in many places around the world including China, South Korea, Spain, and Mexico. By the end of his career, Lockley had collected more than 3000 specimens. He authored hundreds of journal articles, books, field guides, magazine articles, and conference abstracts about fossil tracks. His pioneering work helped establish the study of fossil tracks as an essential tool for understanding paleoecology and the diversity of past life.
In 2000, Lockley opened the Dinosaur Tracks Museum in the basement of the historic St. Cajetan’s Church on the Auraria Campus in Denver, showcasing his extensive collection. Despite its small size, the museum attracted thousands of visitors each year, who engaged with educational exhibits on fossil tracks. Lockley retired from UCD in 2010, and sadly, the Dinosaur Tracks Museum closed in 2012.
When the museum closed, its fossil track collection needed a new home. The UCM graciously accepted the collection and integrated it into its existing paleontological holdings. The collection includes not only real specimens but also molds and casts of specimens that are still in the field (i.e., they were too big and heavy to collect), as well as over 1,600 full-size tracings of track-bearing rock surfaces. Thanks to the efforts of Lockley and others, UCM’s Martin Lockley Fossil Track collection is one of if not the largest and most diverse collections of its kind in the world.