A new study says two carnivorous dinosaurs roamed along a beach and left their large footprints behind in sand about 142 million years ago. Researchers are now getting insight into types of dinosaurs that lived in now modern-day Germany.

The footprints have been fossilized and show that one of the dinosaurs was gigantic and the other was small. The researchers determined by analyzing the prints that the large dinosaur walked at a slow, strolling pace of about 3.9 mph (6.3 km/hour) and the little one walked at about 6 mph (9.7 km/h).

Scientists estimate the carnivorous dinosaurs could run faster than about 25 mph (40 km/h). Germany's Bückeberg Formation has attracted many researchers over the past 200 years to conduct studies on fossilized dinosaur foot prints and tracks.

The formation's fine-grained quartz sandstones have hosted many fossilized footprints of dinosaurs. However, researcher Pernille Troelsen, who earned her master's degree in biology from the University of Southern Denmark in June, decided to study the two tracks preserved in a silty mudstone layer. There were 50 footprints in all.

The analysis helped determine that the animals stood about 5.2 feet (1.6 meters) and 3.6 feet (1.1 m) at hip height.

“They may be many years apart, in which case it may reflect two animals randomly crossing each other's tracks. They may be many years apart, in which case it maybe reflects two animals randomly crossing each other's tracks”, said Troelsen.

The findings of the study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.