A sandstone block consisting of footprints made by a small carnivorous dinosaur
Credit: Tom Rich
Tom Rich with one of the sandstone blocks.
Credit: Tom Rich
SYDNEY: Dinosaur footprints have been discovered in Victoria, adding to the four documented dinosaur tracks found in the state after more than 100 years of paleontological research.
The two sandstone blocks covered in tracks were found at Melanesia Beach, about 100 km from Melbourne. The 24 tracks represent 85% to 90% of the known dinosaur footprints in the state, and are considered to be an invaluable resource of information on dinosaur diversity and activity.
“What is significant about dinosaur footprints – as opposed to dinosaur bones or teeth – is the evidence of the presence of dinosaurs. The trace fossils tell us how the dinosaurs were living in the area at the time,” said Thomas Rich, senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology at Museum Victoria in Melbourne and lead author of the paper published today in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology.
“This is the most significant dinosaur track discovery in Victoria. There are at least 24 dinosaur tracks made by a variety of dinosaurs within the two sandstone blocks," he added.
First Victorian trackway?
The dinosaur footprints were discovered at Melanesia Beach, near Cape Otway in June last year by Rich, Greg Denney of Apollo Bay and Anthony Martin of the Department of Environmental Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Rich and Martin were on a month-long expedition across the coastline of Victoria in search of trace fossils made by dinosaurs and other animals.
The rocks containing the very faint tracks were removed for fear of weathering from ocean winds, and transported in two blocks to Museum Victoria where silicon surface moulds will be made for further study. The heaviest block weighs 700 kg.
The footprints vary in size, which suggests that they were made by a variety of dinosaurs and included what the scientists think could be a ‘dinosaur trackway’ – a series of three consecutive tracks made by the same dinosaur across the same spot. They suggest that the trackway was made by a small 150-million-year-old carnivorous dinosaur, and if they have identified it correctly, it will be the first Cretaceous dinosaur trackway ever discovered in Victoria.
Getting citizen scientists involved
“The dinosaur tracks indicate three differently sized theropod dinosaurs, and they tell us about the seasonal behaviour of these dinosaurs,” said Martin, who identified the tracks on the first sandstone block. “The tracks were formed within a short time span, possibly during a polar summer as they would not have been preserved if the ground was frozen, and the dinosaurs may have had less activity during winter.”
Little information about the behaviour of polar dinosaurs can be gathered from this study but the newly discovered dinosaur footprints shed light on dinosaur presence and their interactions from their environments not provided by dinosaur fossils previously found from this region in Australia.
Co-author of the paper, Pat Rich from the School of Geosciences at Monash University in Melbourne, explained that members of the local community played an important role in this new discovery. “In addition to one slab of prints that we found, the second slab was discovered by our longtime very supportive local landowner, Greg Denney. How he found those faint prints shows that he is one of the world's best dino trackers. Local people are so important in helping us palaeo folk make new discoveries.”
