An area in Utah less than the size of a football field, but filled with an estimated 200 fossilized tracks left by at least 10 different prehistoric animals, is opening up to the public in the fall.

Officials from the Utah Bureau of Land Management say the dry wash in question, near the community of Moab, is covered with the 112-million-year-old traces from a variety of dinosaurs, including an ankylosaurus, dromaeosaurus and an ancestor of the more-widely known meat eater Tyrannosaurus rex.

State paleontologist ReBecca Hunt-Foster explained in a story by the Associated Press that the tracks were first discovered in 2009 by a local and since then a research team from the University of Colorado at Denver has studied and prepared the them for display.

"We don't usually get this," said Hunt-Foster. "It is a beautiful track site, one of the best ones I've ever seen."

The tracks include a set of 17 consecutive footprints left by Tyrannosaurus rex ancestor and the imprint of an ancient crocodile pushing off into the water. The site is one of the largest areas of dinosaur tracks from the early Cretaceous period known to exist in North America, she said.

The collection of footprints also includes those from duck-billed dinosaurs, prehistoric birds, long-necked plant eaters and a bird-like dromaeosaur -- similar to a velociraptor, or, Utah raptor, with is characterized by long, sharp claws, the ABC News report said.

The imprint, for example, of an ancient crocodile at the discovery site shows the chest, body, tail and one foot -- made when the ancient croc was pushing off a muddy bank into water, paleontologists believe.

Left over several days in what was once a shallow lake, the croc prints likely were covered over by sediment that filled them, fast enough to preserve and gently enough not to mar them, Hunt-Foster said.

Over the eons, the footprints were turned to rock as more sediment built up all around them.

The tracks, lying near an active fault line, where uncovered over time as the land shifted up and down over the years, as well as by rains that slowly eroded away layers of the rock.

Earlier this year, a Utah man was arrested and charged by federal authorities for prying a piece of sandstone with a three-toed ancient dinosaur print from the Sand Flats Recreation Area near Moab.

When it opens in October, the track area will include a trail that leads into the location of the fossil finds, with signs for visitors to understand the various features of the area before them.