More than 1.7 m, there is a fossilized footprint of a giant sauropod. Found in western Australia, it became the largest animal footprint known today.
Steve Salisbury and colleagues at the University of Queensland study unique evidence from Walmadany, on the west coast of Australia. Here, when the tide reveals reddish rocks, thousands of footprints left by dinosaurs between 127 and 140 million years ago are revealed. They published the results of their work in The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Scientist sauropod footprint / © The University of Queensland / Vimeo
A few years ago, Salisbury and his colleagues fought to preserve the unique site, which was given to the development of a large-scale gas production project. The project was nevertheless closed, and Volmadani was declared a national treasure by the Australian authorities and is being investigated by scientists. To date, thousands of dinosaur tracks have already been found here, of which about 150 are attributed to representatives of 21 known species.
“There are tracks from at least six carnivorous dinosaur species - long-necked herbivorous sauropods, four bipedal herbivorous ornithopods, and six armored dinosaurs,” says Salisbury. Among others, the largest footprint of all known to paleontologists was found here - it reaches 1.75 m in length, and it was left by a sauropod.
According to scientists, there is no such abundance of traces of lizards anywhere in the world - this is the real Serengeti of the Cretaceous period. The perfectly visible clusters of dinosaur footprints begin even under the water of the Indian Ocean and stretch for tens of kilometers inland. Among the local tribes, they are considered the sacred path of the divine hero Marala, who gave people the Law.
Sergey Vasiliev