» Unprecedented « . It is in these terms that the paleontologists describe their discovery made in Australia after having examined thousands of imprints in rocks whose age goes up to 140 million years.
In Waldamany, a remote region of Western Australia also known as Australia’s Jurassic Park, a team of local paleontologists has unearthed 21 different types of dinosaur footprints in rocks dating back 140 million years. years as announced by the University of Queensland on Monday 27 March. This discovery was made after analyzing thousands of footprints spanning a distance of 25 kilometers.
This is simply the most diverse collection of footprints on the planet. » This is unprecedented in the world commented Steve Salisbury, lead author of a study published by the Memoir of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. » Very importantly, this is the non-avian dinosaur track in the western part of the continent and our only glimpse of the Australian dinosaur fauna during the first half of the Lower Cretaceous. It’s a magical place, it’s Australia’s Jurassic Park in a spectacular wild landscape adds the researcher.
This analysis of footprints in this remote region of Australia will have lasted five years (between 2011 and 2016) and required more than 400 hours to identify the 21 different types of tracks representing four main groups of dinosaurs. » There are five different types of predatory dinosaur tracks, at least six types of long-necked herbivorous sauropod tracks, four types of bipedal herbivorous ornithopod tracks, and six types of armored dinosaur tracks. », adds Steve Salisbury.
This major and unprecedented discovery could have never been made. In fact, in 2008, the government of Western Australia designated this site as ideal for establishing a huge natural gas processing project. It was the aborigines, probably convinced of the existence of these traces, who alerted the paleontologists so that they proceed to excavations. It was good for them since in 2011, the site was classified as a national heritage in 2011, which led to the abandonment of the site exploitation project.