Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Australia

A new study has found refrigerator-sized dinosaur footprints on the western coast of Australia. The newly discovered footprints are just a single type among other existing trackways. The footprints are prevalent on the Dampier Peninsula, 21 different types in all. Researchers have calculated these prints to be around 140 to 127 million years old, during the Cretaceous period.

The coast includes various footprints that are about 5.5 feet (1.7 meters) long, making them the largest known dinosaur footprints in the world, the researchers said. It is assumed that these prints belong to a sauropod, a long-necked, long-tailed, herbivorous dinosaur. Other, smaller prints found, were likely from carnivores and other dinosaurs, herbivorous by nature.

Such footprints are known as trace fossils, meaning that they aren’t a part of the animal itself but were left by them. Fossilized burrows and coprolites are other examples of trace fossils.

Content source - livescience.com

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