Scientists may have discovered the world's biggest dinosaur footprint measuring about 5 feet 9 inches in length in the Dampier Peninsula, known as "Australia's Jurassic Park." The footmarks belonged to a long-necked herbivore classified as a sauropod.
Steve Salisbury, the lead author of the study and a professor at the University of Queensland, told CNN News, "The giant footprints are no doubt spectacular. There's nothing that comes close (to this length)." However, the footprint was just one of 21 newly discovered track types and stones that date back to 140 million years ago.
Salisbury said there were 150 tracks in the Waldamany region assigned to the four main groups of dinosaurs. He said in a press statement that there were five different types of predatory dinosaur tracks, six types of tracks from long-necked herbivorous sauropods, four types of tracks from two-legged herbivorous ornithopods, and six types of tracks from armored dinosaurs.
It was confirmed that stegosaurus once roamed in Australia as well. Salisbury pointed out that most fossil pieces can be located in the eastern part of the country, especially in Broome, which are over 90 million years older. Salisbury called Australia's Jurassic Park as a "spectacular wilderness setting."
Over the course of five years, he and his team actually discovered more than thousands of dinosaur footprints around Walmadany. Travel and Leisure reported that the peninsula is so diverse in its collection of tracks that it is considered as the "Cretaceous equivalent of the Serengeti."
Sauropods are known for their long necks, tails and small heads. Their genra include the famous Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus, Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus. They are mostly widespread during the late Triassic Period up to the Late Jurassic until they were replaced by the titanosaurs. According to various reports, it's quite hard to find sauropod fossil let alone their proof of existence.
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