Brisbane dinosaur fossil is Australia’s oldest

News launch

From:
The University of Queensland

Video and images accessible through Dropbox

University of Queensland analysis has confirmed Brisbane’s solely dinosaur fossil is Australia’s oldest, relationship again to the earliest a part of the Late Triassic interval 230 million years in the past.

The 18.5-centimetre footprint was found by a youngster at Petrie’s Quarry at Albion in 1958 however remained unstudied for greater than 60 years.

Dr Anthony Romilio from UQ’s Dinosaur Lab stated the footprint set in stone proved dinosaurs have been current in Australia so much sooner than beforehand recognised.

“This is the only dinosaur fossil to be found in an Australia capital city and shows how globally significant discoveries can remain hidden in plain sight,” Dr Romilio stated.

“Subsequent urban development has made the original site inaccessible, leaving this footprint as the only surviving dinosaur evidence from the area.

“It’s likely the dinosaur was walking through or alongside a waterway when it left the footprint before it was then preserved in sandstone, which was cut millions of years later to construct buildings across Brisbane.

“Without the foresight to preserve this material, Brisbane’s dinosaur history would still be completely unknown.”

The footprint was made by a small, two-legged dinosaur, possible an early sauropodomorph, which is a primitive relative of later lengthy‑necked dinosaurs.

Dr Romilio stated based mostly on its measurement, the animal stood roughly 75 to 80 centimetres tall on the hip and weighed about 140 kilograms.

Study co-author and UQ Honorary Professor Bruce Runnegar was {the teenager} who collected the fossil throughout a go to to the quarry with faculty pals and has stored it since.

“At the time, we suspected the marks might be dinosaur tracks, but we couldn’t have imagined their national significance,” Professor Runnegar stated.

Professor Runnegar went on to review a Bachelor of Science and PhD at UQ after which to show palaeontology on the University of New England at Armidale and University of California, Los Angeles, the place he confirmed the Brisbane fossil to college students.

“It was a great example of a special kind of trace fossil because the footprint was made in sediment by a heavy animal,” he stated.

“When I saw Dr Romilio’s ability to reconstruct, analyse and map dinosaur footprints, I decided to reach out to have the fossil formally documented.

“More than 60 years after we found it, it’s extraordinary to see it recognised as Australia’s oldest dinosaur fossil.”

The fossil is now housed on the Queensland Museum the place will probably be accessible for ongoing analysis.

The research is revealed in Alcheringa.