'Australia's Jurassic Park': World's biggest dinosaur footprint unearthed in WA
The world’s biggest dinosaur footprint has been unearthed on a stretch of remote Western Australian coastline, an area now being dubbed “the nation's Jurassic Park”.
Paleontologists from the University of Queensland this week published details of the staggering 1.7 metre sauropod print found among an “unprecedented” 21 different dinosaur tracks that were uncovered in the remote Kimberly region.
Unearthing rocks up to 140 million years old, expedition leader Dr Steve Salisbury said the findings were “globally unparalleled”.
"We've got several tracks up in that area that are about 1.7 metres long," Dr Salisbury said.
Richard Hunter lies next to a 1.7m dinosaur footprint belonging to a sauropod. Source: Dr Steve Salisbury
"So most people would be able to fit inside tracks that big, and they indicate animals that are probably around 5.3 to 5.5 metres at the hip, which is enormous.
"It’s such a magical place, Australia’s own Jurassic Park, in a spectacular wilderness setting."
It was discovery that nearly went begging though, after the Western Australian government identified the area as a potential site for a massive liquid natural gas processing precinct back in 2008.
They spent more than 400 hours investigating and documenting dinosaur tracks in the Walmadany area.
Some of the footprints belonged to a sauropod, a large plant-eating dinosaur similar to 'Matilda' (top) and 'Clancy' (bottom), whose remains were discovered in Queensland in 2009.
Alarmed, the region's traditional Aboriginal custodians, the Goolarabooloo people, put the matter before Dr Salisbury and his team.
"Among the tracks is the only confirmed evidence for stegosaurs in Australia. There are also some of the largest dinosaur tracks ever recorded,” Dr Salisbury added.
Paleontologists from the University of Queensland this week published details of the staggering 1.7 metre sauropod print. Source: AAP
"There are thousands of tracks around Walmadany. Of these, 150 can confidently be assigned to 21 specific track types, representing four main groups of dinosaurs," Salisbury said.
There were five different types of predatory dinosaur tracks, at least six types of tracks from long-necked herbivorous sauropods, four types of tracks from two-legged herbivorous ornithopods, and six types of tracks from armoured dinosaurs."
In the past, most of Australia’s dinosaur fossils have come from the eastern side of the vast country.
