
Paleontologists have unveiled a site in Western Australia famous for huge dinosaur footprints.
STATES CHRONICLE – Paleontologists revealed some massive dinosaur footprints, of the size of a refrigerator on the western coast of Australia. That area is famous for being the most diverse location on Earth when it comes to dinosaur footprints. On the Dampier Peninsula, scientists discovered 21 different types of footprints which once pertained to dinosaurs. The 15.5-mile area is called by researchers the “Australia’s Jurassic Park.”
In Western Australia, researchers revealed a 5.5-feet long footprint
Apparently, the prints revealed there dated back 140 million to 127 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period. This peninsula encompasses many footprints, some of them even measuring 5.5 feet long, being some of the largest dinosaur footprints ever discovered. Researchers believe that these prints belonged to a sauropod, which was a herbivorous dinosaur which had a long neck and a long tail.
Paleontologists stated that smaller footprints might have belonged to carnivorous dinosaurs. These footprints are present in the history and culture of the Aboriginal people leaving in the area known as Goolarabooloo. They believe they are the traditional custodians of this area. These prints appear in a song cycle which tells the story of Goolarabooloo people, arguing that those tracks are meant to indicate the journey of Marala, the emu man. Philip Roe, a Goolarabooloo law boss, stated that back then Marala was known as the lawgiver.
They discovered dinosaur footprints of herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs
This man developed the rules for its people, advising them how they should keep a balance in everything they do and how they should behave. Steve Salisbury, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia who is also the lead author of this study, reported that Marala was said to have left behind three-toed marks which scientists recognize today as being the footprints of theropods.
Back in 2008, the government of West Australia selected the area known as James Price Point or Walmadany to be a suitable site to develop an experiment via liquid-natural-gas processing estimated to cost $40 billion. When the Aboriginal people found out about this process, they decided to contact Salisbury and his team. They had already spent over four hundred hours to document the dinosaur footprints.
Roe declared himself happy to work with UQ scientists, having a lot to learn from each other and also claimed that people around the world should find out about this place and the mysteries it hides.
Image courtesy of: wikipedia