One of the highest concentrations of dinosaur footprints, says Anthony Romilio
Sydney: A remarkable discovery of fossilized dinosaur footprints has been made on a rock slab that had been gathering dust inside an Australian school, scientists revealed on Wednesday.
The rock went largely unnoticed for two decades until the school, located in Queensland’s rural Banana Shire, invited paleontologist Anthony Romilio to inspect a cluster of three-toed track marks.
Romilio stated that the slab contained dozens of fossilized footprints, dating back to the early Jurassic period, approximately 200 million years ago.
A rare find
The discovery represents one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur footprints ever recorded in Australia, Romilio said.
“It’s an unprecedented snapshot of dinosaur abundance, movement, and behavior from a time when no fossilized dinosaur bones have been found in Australia,” he explained.
“Significant fossils like this can sit unnoticed for years, even in plain sight. It’s incredible to think that a piece of history this rich was resting in a schoolyard all this time.”
The rock slab was originally unearthed in 2002 by coal miners, who, upon noticing the unusual footprints, decided to donate it to a school in the small town of Biloela, where it was later displayed in the foyer.
For years, it remained there untouched, until researchers started asking around about any dinosaur fossils discovered in the area.
“Some of the teachers thought it was a replica rather than the real thing,” Romilio noted.
“Everyone didn’t quite realize what they actually had. They knew it was a dinosaur footprint but not the level of detail that a researcher like me would go into.”
‘My jaw dropped’
Romilio and his team discovered 66 separate track impressions on the slab, which measured less than one square metre.
The footprints belonged to a small, stocky, plant-eating dinosaur that walked on two legs, known as Anomoepus scambus, he said.
“Fossilized footprints—despite being the most abundant type of dinosaur fossils—are often overlooked by researchers.
“They don’t have the same allure as fossilized bones.
“The vast majority of dinosaur fossils aren’t found by paleontologists—they’re actually discovered by people on the ground.”
During his search for fossils in the area, Romilio also stumbled upon another major discovery—a two-tonne boulder located at the entrance of a coal mine car park.
“As I was driving into the car park, I noticed one of those car park boulders, meant to stop cars from driving onto the lawn.
“And there it was—a clear-as-day dinosaur fossil. My jaw dropped when I saw that.”
Romilio and his team of researchers have now published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Historical Biology.
