A remarkable record of the initial Jurassic was hidden in sight of all for 20 years in a rock slab exposed at a high school in Bilhola, Australia, according to a new study.
Although the researchers knew that the 1.5 meter in length slab was about 200 million years old and housed an abundance of visible dinosaur footprints, the significance of the fossil remained uncertain.
Now a team of paleontologists studying the rock surface found 66 fossilized footprints of 47 individual dinosaurs belonging to the anomepus scambu icnoespecies. Icnoespecies are organisms identified only by fossils, or fossils that are impressions left, such as footprints, instead of organisms themselves.
The discovery represents one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur footprints per square meter already documented in the country, and provides an “unprecedented panorama” of the abundance of dinosaurs during the initial Jurassic, a period during which no dinosaur bone was discovered in Australia, according to a statement from the University of Queensland.
The findings were published in the historical journal Biology on March 10.
The fact that this fossil has gone unnoticed for decades is not surprising, said the main author of the study, Dr. Anthony Romilio, paleontologist and researcher associated with the University’s Dinosaur Laboratory.
“Dinosaur fossil footprints tend to be vastly underestimated even by many (paleontologists),” Romilio said by email. But in Australia, as fossilized bones of older dinosaurs come from the average Jurassic, about 160 million years ago, “footprint fossils are the only direct evidence our country has of the types of dinosaurs we had here (for previous times),” said Romilio.
In addition, the slab provides a rare glimpse of the behavior and activity of a dinosaur that has only been described by their footprints found in various parts of the world, experts say.
Footprints of the initial Jurassic
Using advanced 3D images and light filters, Romilio was able to discover hidden details in the stone slab, revealing the crowd of footprints and other features, such as the direction in which the animals that made the trails were following.
The 66 fossilized footprints, which vary in size from about 5 centimeters to 20 centimeters long, reveal that the dinosaurs were probably crossing a river or rising and down along a river, Romilio said.
Since there are no ripple marks on the rock surface, it is difficult to determine the direction of the flow of the river, but the trails clearly show the dinosaurs walking in two directions, he added.
Through his analysis, Romilio found a total of 13 sequences of footprints that belonged to 13 dinosaurs who made the trails. The remaining footprints, totaling 34, were classified as isolated footprints, accounting for the 47 total individuals.
The dinosaurs that made the trails would have legs ranging from 15 to 50 centimeters long, along with a robust body and short arms, Romilio said.
Although fossils are often neglected because they are more common than dinosaur bones, they can “provide a huge amount of information when properly analyzed,” said Dr. Paul Olsen, Paleontologist and Professor Arthur D. Storke of Earth Sciences and Environmental University. Olsen, who studied Anomepus, was not involved in this new study.
“(Footprints) provide information about animals that were present even if we do not have the bones … they are really as a parallel data set that allows us to track, intentional pun, which is happening when bones are rare. That’s why they are so important,” said Olsen. The Scambus was a three -finge and two leg dinosaur that belonged to the family of the ornitisms, which includes other herbivorous dinosaurs such as hadrosaurs and tricerops, and had nozzles in front of the mouth with crushed teeth, Olsen said. “These new footprints, which preserve a lot of anatomical details, further reinforce that small ornithismic dinosaurs have achieved a global distribution at the beginning of the Jurassic period,” he added.
Hidden under the nose
The study authors also analyzed two other occurrences of fossil-ração found in unexpected places. They found that a 2,000 kilogram rock block, used as a parking entry marker on the Callide mine near Billoela, had two distinct footprints left by a slightly larger dinosaur. And a third rock from a private collection (used as support for books) had a single footprint.
The rock slab located at school was also originally from the Callide mine, which is an open -air mine, which means that the over -disruption rock is removed to reach the underlying coal, Romilio explained. During the extraction of the over -disruption, which extends for many kilometers and date of the initial Jurassic period, fossil footprints like these can be found.
“There is definitely much more fossils occurring there,” said Romilio. “If they are spotted in time, or if it is safe to collect them is another completely different question. We are only fortunate that these and some have been spotted, recovered and made available to people like me to study and share the findings.”
This content was originally published in more than 60 dinosaur footprints discovered inside Australian school on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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