Sousa Dinosaur Valley

The Vale dos Dinossauros preserves footprints rather than bones: around a hundred and thirty trackways left in soft mud about a hundred and twenty million years ago, when this was a lake margin, then buried, hardened and later exposed again by the Peixe River cutting down through the rock. The best-known sequence at Passagem das Pedras runs for tens of metres in a straight line, three-toed and deep enough to put a hand into, made by a bipedal dinosaur crossing the mud. Sauropod and ornithopod prints are here too, and the range of track types is what makes the site scientifically important - it records behaviour and movement rather than anatomy. The prints sit in the open riverbed and are only accessible when the Peixe is low.

What you actually see

• Around 130 trackways - footprints rather than bones, in the open riverbed.
• A long straight sequence - tens of metres of three-toed prints at Passagem das Pedras.
• Several track types - theropod, sauropod and ornithopod prints together.
• Mud turned to rock - a lake margin from about 120 million years ago.

When to go

June to November, when the riverbed is dry. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Prints are covered and inaccessible when the river runs. Interpretation on site is thin and a guide makes the difference. Heat in the open bed is severe by mid-morning. Sousa is a long way from the coast.

Nearby

Sousa is five kilometres away; Cajazeiras is west toward the Ceara line.