A step-by-step account of an ancient dinosaur chase has been brought back to life through new research at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London in the United Kingdom.

The findings, published today in the journal PLOS ONE, resulted from state-of-the-art 3D imaging of fossil footprints found 70 years ago along the Paluxy River in Glen Rose, Texas, and made famous through a long-standing debate between researchers about whether the tracks reveal humans running alongside dinosaurs.

The team, lead by Peter Falkingham, used photogrammetric techniques to reconstruct an accurate 3D model of the famous dinosaur tracks, left from an apparent chase involving a theropod and sauropod, based on historic photos taken by paleontologist Roland T. Bird during his discovery and excavation of the site.

Once excavated, the trackway was split into three sections for study and housing in different institutions; one section was either lost or destroyed in the subsequent years.

The two remaining sections are kept by the American Museum of Natural History and the Texas Memorial Museum.

In 2008, a team of researchers funded by the National Geographic Society worked to document the unexcavated tracks at the site, which remain subject to the destructive forces of the river.

During that earlier project, Falkingham, Karl Bates from the University of Liverpool and Professor James Farlow from Indiana University-Purdue University, which is a post-graduate program that offers degrees for both universities, developed the historical photogrammetry application, which uses multiple digital photographs to generate a 3D model by matching features between images and calculating relative camera positions.

"Not only does this work with modern digital photographs but because the technology has become so advanced, and desktop computers so powerful, we were also able to use the historic photographs taken by R.T. Bird," Falkingham said in a news release. "This is a significant advancement for the protection of sites and artifacts of paleontological importance. It is only natural that specimens will be lost or deteriorate over time, particularly those such as fossil trackways that must remain in the field. But this technology has opened up an avenue for recreating these important sites and artifacts at little cost."

The 3D model of the Paluxy River dinosaur trackways can now be used for ongoing study of the larger fossil area, helping scientists like Falkingham better determine how the dinosaurs moved and how they interacted with each other and the world around them.