A team of Australian scientists from Queensland University and James Cook University are reporting on a remarkably diverse collection of well preserved dinosaur tracks in the Broome Sandstone at 48 separate sites centered on Walmadany (James Price Point) in the Yanijarri–Lurujarri section of the Dampier Peninsula, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Located along the beaches many of the tracks are only visible at low tide with the sites themselves being spread over more than 200 km of coastline north of Broome. They are dated at being between 127 and 140 myo (Early Cretaceous) and of the 150 tracks that could so far be identified they were made by over 21 different types of dinosaurs.
According to the research team eleven of these track types can formally be assigned or compared to existing or new ichnotaxa, whereas the remaining ten represent morphotypes that, although distinct, are currently too poorly represented to be positively assigned to existing or new ichnotaxa.
The researchers say that at the time the area where the tracks were laid down was near a braided river and its delta.
The lead researcher, Steve Salisbury of Queensland University's School of Biological Science, stated that "There are about six different types of tracks for meat-eating dinosaurs; about the same number for sauropod dinosaurs; about four different types of ornithopod dinosaur tracks - so, two-legged plant-eaters - and really exciting, I think, are six types of armored dinosaur tracks, including stegosaurs, which we've never seen before in Australia."
I should note that the armored dinosaurs, which are known as Thyreophora, are actually a subgroup of the ornithischian dinosaurs so technically speaking ten distinct type of ornithopod track makers have been identified.
Among the tracks is the largest dinosaur footprint known to science being slightly over 175 cm long (about 5'9" long) which dwarfs the 106 cm one discovered in the Gobi Desert that was made by a Titanosaur between 70 to 90 mya (Late Cretaceous).
Dr. Salisbury said the indigenous people had long referred to the markings in their oral history -- likely for thousands of years. They form part of a song cycle relating to a creation mythology, and specifically the tracks show the journey of a creation being called "Marala" known as the Emu man who was regarded as a lawgiver. "Wherever he went he left behind three-toed tracks that now we recognize as the tracks of meat-eating dinosaurs" (typically those assigned to Megalosauropus broomensis).
Further Reading:
The Dinosaurian Ichnofauna of the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian–Barremian) Broome Sandstone of the Walmadany Area (James Price Point), Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia Full Paper
Largest-Known Dinosaur Footprint Discovered in Western Australia includes 3½ minute video
Kimberley fossil tracks are Australia's 'Jurassic Park'
World's largest dinosaur footprint found in 'Australia's Jurassic Park'
Scientists Uncover Giant Dino Tracks in 'Australia's Jurassic Park'
Located along the beaches many of the tracks are only visible at low tide with the sites themselves being spread over more than 200 km of coastline north of Broome. They are dated at being between 127 and 140 myo (Early Cretaceous) and of the 150 tracks that could so far be identified they were made by over 21 different types of dinosaurs.
According to the research team eleven of these track types can formally be assigned or compared to existing or new ichnotaxa, whereas the remaining ten represent morphotypes that, although distinct, are currently too poorly represented to be positively assigned to existing or new ichnotaxa.
The researchers say that at the time the area where the tracks were laid down was near a braided river and its delta.
The lead researcher, Steve Salisbury of Queensland University's School of Biological Science, stated that "There are about six different types of tracks for meat-eating dinosaurs; about the same number for sauropod dinosaurs; about four different types of ornithopod dinosaur tracks - so, two-legged plant-eaters - and really exciting, I think, are six types of armored dinosaur tracks, including stegosaurs, which we've never seen before in Australia."
I should note that the armored dinosaurs, which are known as Thyreophora, are actually a subgroup of the ornithischian dinosaurs so technically speaking ten distinct type of ornithopod track makers have been identified.
Among the tracks is the largest dinosaur footprint known to science being slightly over 175 cm long (about 5'9" long) which dwarfs the 106 cm one discovered in the Gobi Desert that was made by a Titanosaur between 70 to 90 mya (Late Cretaceous).
Dr. Salisbury said the indigenous people had long referred to the markings in their oral history -- likely for thousands of years. They form part of a song cycle relating to a creation mythology, and specifically the tracks show the journey of a creation being called "Marala" known as the Emu man who was regarded as a lawgiver. "Wherever he went he left behind three-toed tracks that now we recognize as the tracks of meat-eating dinosaurs" (typically those assigned to Megalosauropus broomensis).
Further Reading:
The Dinosaurian Ichnofauna of the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian–Barremian) Broome Sandstone of the Walmadany Area (James Price Point), Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia Full Paper
Largest-Known Dinosaur Footprint Discovered in Western Australia includes 3½ minute video
Kimberley fossil tracks are Australia's 'Jurassic Park'
World's largest dinosaur footprint found in 'Australia's Jurassic Park'
Scientists Uncover Giant Dino Tracks in 'Australia's Jurassic Park'
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