Dinosaur footprints unknowingly displayed in a high school for 20 years
A large boulder used as decoration in a rural Australian high school’s foyer is actually covered in dinosaur footprints—it just took around 20 years for anyone to notice. After examining the ancient rock, paleontologists at the University of Queensland’s Dinosaur Lab believe the stone features one of the country’s highest concentrations of fossilized footprints. These tiny tracks were created by dozens of small, two-legged herbivores during the early Jurassic period. The team describes their findings in a study published on March 10 in the journal Historical Biology. Eastern Australia’s Biloela State High School is located near the Callide Coal Mine. Workers at this largescale operation often blow up rock formations to reach their payloads. Around 20 years ago, a geologist working at the site took note of a rock formation dotted with what looked like chicken footprints—albeit chickens with three instead of the standard four or five toes. The geologist extracted...