US EditionA New App Can Match Footprints to the Dinosaurs That Made Them
- A field visit to a small early Cretaceous outcrop in the Knysna area produced dinosaur tracks last year, spotted by Linda Helm from the African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University.
- Seeking to fill a long regional gap, the team searched Cretaceous terrestrial deposits in the Western and Eastern Cape after massive lava flows covered the Karoo Basin about 182 million years ago.
- The tiny Brenton Formation exposure measures no more than 40 metres by five metres, with tracks on rock surfaces and cliffs in the intertidal zone, where high tide covers most twice daily.
- The researchers report that the site represents the second South African Cretaceous record and the second for Western Cape province, with more than two dozen probable tracks indicating significant dinosaur presence.
- Researchers estimate the tracks date to about 132 million years ago, confirming dinosaurs persisted after the Karoo lava events and suggesting more may be found in Western and Eastern Cape exposures.
17 Articles
17 Articles
230 Million Year Old Footprint Rewrites Dinosaur History in Australia
When a Brisbane teenager went fossicking for plant fossils in a quarry in 1958, he had no way of knowing the rock he picked up would help rewrite Australia’s dinosaur history nearly 70 years later. The sandstone, marked by an 18.5 centimetre fossilised footprint, is now confirmed as Australia’s oldest known dinosaur fossil, dating back 230 million years to the earliest part of the Late Triassic period. Bruce Runnegar, then a teenager, had suspec…
Teen discovers Australia’s oldest dinosaur fossil—almost 70 years ago
In 1958, an Australian teenager named Bruce Runnegar uncovered a mysterious dinosaur footprint during a visit to a quarry with school friends. He kept the fossil for years, eventually becoming a paleontologist himself. Over six decades later, the prehistoric print is now ready for its close-up. Runnegar gave the fossil to a team at the University of Queensland’s Dinosaur Lab, where they believe that the roughly 7-inch, fossilized footprint was m…
Teen's 1958 find becomes Australia's oldest dinosaur fossil
University of Queensland research has confirmed Brisbane's only dinosaur fossil is Australia's oldest, dating back to the earliest part of the Late Triassic period 230 million years ago. The 18.5-centimeter footprint was discovered by a teenager at Petrie's Quarry at Albion in 1958 but remained unstudied for more than 60 years.
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