Spectacular Prehistoric Treasure in Australia
A group of palaeontologists from the University of Queensland discovered the world’s biggest dinosaur footprint at the prehistoric treasure trove in northwestern Australia.
The biggest dinosaur footprint measures 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 meters). It belonged to a sauropod, a long-necked herbivore.
The spectacular discovery was confirmed by Steve Salisbury, the lead author of the study and a professor from University of Queensland.
Salisbury told CNN, “The giant footprints are no doubt spectacular. There’s nothing that comes close (to this length).”
The footprint was discovered in an area at Salisbury which is dubbed “Australia’s Jurassic Park.” The researchers found 21 different dinosaur tracks around this prehistoric area. The tracks are between 127 and 144 million years old.
Salisbury described the prehistoric trove as “such a magical place, Australia’s own Jurassic Park, in a spectacular wilderness setting.”
The research, by palaeontologists from The University of Queensland’s School of Biological Sciences and James Cook University’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, has been published as the 2016 Memoir of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Welcome to Australia’s Jurassic Park
Australia’s Jurassic Park has become a prehistoric treasure for its amazing finds, including the only confirmed evidence for stegosaurs in Australia.
Salisbury stressed that the conditions on the Dampier Peninsula were ideal for both the creation of these tracks and their preservation.
Salisbury said, “Nowhere else has as many different types of dinosaurs represented by tracks than Walmadany [James Price Point] has.”
The “Australia’s Jurassic Park” is a 24-kilometre stretch of coastline, called Walmadany by the indigenous Goolarabooloo people and labelled James Price Point on most maps.
Meet The Stegosaurs
The largest dinosaur print which was discovered northwestern Australia is considered the largest ever recorded. It measures 5-feet-9-inches (1.75-metre) and the print belongs to a sauropod, or long-necked dinosaur, known as the stegosaur. These prehistoric animals are described as spiky-tailed creatures that lived in the land down under.
The stegosaurs were four-legged plant-eating dinosaurs that had distinctive armor of upright flattened plates on the neck and back and spikes on the tail.
