Scientists said Wednesday that they have discovered a cache of fossilized dinosaur footprints on a rock slab that was collecting dust inside an Australian school.
Before the school in the rural Banana shire of Queensland requested paleontologist Anthony Romilio to look at a group of three-toed track markings, the rock was mainly overlooked for 20 years.
According to Romilio, dozens of fossilized footprints from the early Jurassic period, approximately 200 million years ago, were stamped on the slab.
According to him, the discovery revealed “one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur footprints” ever recorded in Australia.
“It’s an unprecedented snapshot of dinosaur abundance, movement and behaviour from a time when no fossilised dinosaur bones have been found in Australia,” said Romilio, from the University of Queensland.
“Significant fossils like this can sit unnoticed for years, even in plain sight.
“It’s incredible to think that a piece of history this rich was resting in a schoolyard all this time.”
After discovering the peculiar footprints, coal miners in 2002 gave the slab to a school in the tiny hamlet of Biloela, where it was subsequently put on display in the foyer.
The rock remained in place until scientists began searching for dinosaur fossils that might have been found nearby.
“Some of the teachers thought this was a replica rather than the real thing,” Romilio said.
“Everyone didn’t quite realise what they actually have.
“They definitely knew it was a dinosaur footprint. But not the level of detail that a researcher like myself would go into.”
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