Evrim Yazgin
Cosmos science journalist
Palaeontologists have discovered 24 dinosaur tracks dating to the Early Cretaceous period, on the Bass Coast in Victoria in southeastern Australia.
During the Cretaceous (145–66 million years ago), the Australian landmass was part of the supercontinent Gondwana. Australia was still connected to Antarctica until about 85 million years ago.
The region which is now the state of Victoria was below the polar circle during the Early Cretaceous.
Lush polar forests which entered near total darkness for half of the year dominated. Among the inhabitants were small and medium sized dinosaurs as well as pterosaurs soaring overhead.
The discovery of the footprints is detailed in a paper published in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology.
Researchers found 18 tracks made by theropods – bipedal carnivores. There are also footprints of ornithopods – small, herbivorous dinosaurs – which might have been prey of the theropods. They were laid down120–128 million years ago.
The fossil footprints were found in the Wonthaggi Formation about 100 km southwest of the State capital, Melbourne.
“The discovery of numerous theropod tracks in the Cretaceous rocks of Victoria is the best evidence to date that these former polar environments supported a variety of dinosaurs, including large carnivores that most likely preyed on smaller dinosaurs, fish and turtles,” says co-author Thomas Rich, senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute.
“The tracks are preserved in floodplains next to channel sandstones, suggesting that dinosaurs travelled through the landscape during polar summers, following flooding after the spring thaw,” notes senior author Patricia Vickers-Rich from Monash University.
A range of sizes suggests a mix of juvenile and adult dinosaurs.
You can find out more about Victoria’s ancient past in a piece written by Evrim Yazgin for Issue 104 of Cosmos print magazine, out this month.
