200-Million-Year-Old Three-Toed Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Australia

200-Million-Year-Old Three-Toed Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Australia

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Paleontologists have actually studied and explained 3 formerly unidentified dinosaur track-bearing surface areas from a region near Biloela in Queensland, Australia.

Dinosaur track-bearing surface area from the Dunn Creek mining location of the Precipice Sandstone, Callide Basin, Queensland, Australia. Image credit: Romilio et aldoi: 10.1080/ 08912963.2025.2472153.

Dr. Anthony Romilio, a scientist at the University of Queensland, and his coworkers found Early Jurassic dinosaur footprints protected on 3 different stones from the Callide Basin.

“One of the surface areas consists of a single track, another has a single trackway made up of 2 tracks, while the 3rd consists of a big concentration of 66 footprints, “they stated.

” This is the greatest concentration understood from the location, with a density of 71 tracks per m2and 2nd greatest in Australia just to a same-aged specimen from Carnarvon Gorge.”

Each footprint has 3 toes, suggesting they come from the dinosaur ichnospecies Anomoepus scambus

“This ichnospecies that has actually likewise been discovered at Early Jurassic tracksites in the Carnarvon Gorge and Mount Morgan, showing the occurrence of ornithischian dinosaurs throughout the area,” the scientists stated.

Little, infilled circular traces, perhaps invertebrate burrows of the ichnogenus Skolithosare plentiful on the surface areas that, if right, show the tracks were formed in subaqueous, moderate-to-high energy conditions.

Ornithischian trackmakers of the ichnospecies Anomoepus scambusImage credit: University of Queensland.

” The footprints are from 47 private dinosaurs which passed throughout a spot of damp, white clay, perhaps strolling along or crossing a waterway,”Dr. Romilio stated.

“These dinosaurs were little, with legs varying from 15-50 cm in length and when they left these marks, they were taking a trip less than 6 km per hour.”

“Evidence from skeletal fossils overseas informs us dinosaurs with feet like these were plant eaters with long legs, a chunky body, brief arms, and a little head with a beak.”

According to the researchers, the newly-discovered footprints are roughly 200 million years of ages (Early Jurassic date).

“These footprints supply important insights into the abundance and habits of dinosaurs throughout a time when body fossils are missing in Australia,” they stated.

Their paper was released March 10, 2025 in the journal Historic Biology

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Anthony Romilio et alDinosaur footprints from the Lower Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) Precipice Sandstone of the Callide Basin, Queensland, Australia. Historic Biologyreleased online March 10, 2025; doi: 10.1080/ 08912963.2025.2472153

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