Study of dinaosuar tracks north of Broome - 21 species - world's largest footprint

[gary]

Sarah Kaplan in an article today in the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/03/27/worlds-biggest-dinosaur-footprint-discovered-in-australias-own-jurassic-park/?utm_term=.6fb83426b09d)writes on
a report published on Friday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
by Salisbury et. al. on a multi-year study of dinosaur footprints in the
coastal region north of Broome.

There are thousands of marks along the 25km stretch of coastline
which have been known about by people for millennia.

The study has shown evidence for at east 21 different species and casts
were made of what is claimed to be the largest dinosaur footprint in the
world.






"The Dinosaurian Ichnofauna of the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian–Barremian) Broome Sandstone of the Walmadany Area
(James Price Point), Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia" by Salisbury et. al. paper here -
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2016.1269539

Washington Post story here :-
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/03/27/worlds-biggest-dinosaur-footprint-discovered-in-australias-own-jurassic-park/?utm_term=.23316336fad6

[deanm]

That's remarkable story, Gary: thanks for posting!
For a long time, we had no fossil evidence of dinosaurs in Oz - we knew they had to have been here because of a native conifer tree that still exists today.
Its seeds are about the size of a basketball: the only beast that could possibly have eaten and dispersed (ouch!) these seeds had to be pretty bloody big - dino-big.
Subsequently, we did find fossilised bones and many preserved tracks.
Dean

[Wavytone]

Sadly most of these should be removed and placed in museums - before opportunists armed with no more than a shovel help themselves.

The experience in europe is similar - anywhere tourists are likely the dinosaur footprint pavements have had to be removed and casts installed.