Australia’s oldest-known dinosaur fossil identified
Australia’s oldest dinosaur fossil has been identified more than 60 years after a teenager found it while searching for fossils in a sandstone quarry.
The 18.5cm footprint was found by Bruce Runnegar in 1958 while searching for plant fossils at Albion in Brisbane’s inner south.
Palaeontologist Anthony Romilio from the University of Queensland confirmed that the footprint belonged to a prosauropod, a small dinosaur from the early Late Triassic period, 230 million years ago.
Dr. It is the oldest known dinosaur fossil from Australia and one of the oldest dinosaur fossils in the world, Romilio told AAP.
This proved that dinosaurs existed in Australia much earlier than previously known.
“This shows how globally important discoveries can remain hidden from view,” Dr Romilio said. he said.
The sandstone found at Petrie’s Quarry was used in buildings such as the Brisbane General Post Office, and people visited it to look for plant fossils from the Triassic period.
“Bruce and his friends came across this fossil when he was in high school in 1958, they cut it out and he was stuck with it for over sixty years,” Dr Romilio said.
The young fossil fossil became a paleontologist, and decades later, when he learned he was using new photography and 3D technology to study dinosaur footprints, Dr. He contacted Romilio.
“When I saw Dr Romilio’s ability to reconstruct, analyze and map dinosaur footprints, I decided to reach out to have the fossil officially documented,” Professor Runnegar said.
“It is extraordinary to see that, more than 60 years after we found it, this is recognized as Australia’s oldest dinosaur fossil.”
Comparisons with other fossilized footprints and skeletal remains from around the world enabled the dinosaur to be identified as a prosauropod.
“Presumably the dinosaur was walking along or alongside a watercourse when it left its footprint, before it was preserved in the sandstone,” Dr Romilio said. he said.
The oldest known dinosaur fossils in Australia were footprints found at Ipswich, west of Brisbane, dating back about 215 million years.
Dr Romilio said the prosauropod was a primitive relative of later long-necked dinosaurs and was about 75 to 80cm tall at the hip and weighed about 140kg.
The fossil is currently in the Queensland Museum, where it will be available for ongoing research.
