A boulder was donated to a high school 20 years ago. Only now has its secret been unearthed
For 20 years, a boulder sat at a regional high school without anyone realising its significance.
Its remarkable secret has finally been revealed after researchers discovered it contained one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur footprints ever documented in Australia.
The white clay boulder, about the size of a small table, features 66 fossilised footprints of small dinosaurs from 200 million years ago.
Anthony Romilio from the University of Queensland’s Dinosaur Lab.Credit: University of Queensland
The three-toed footprints from 47 individual dinosaurs date back to the Early Jurassic period, University of Queensland researcher Anthony Romilio said.
They belong to the Anomoepus scambus, a dinosaur that moved on two 50-centimetre-long legs, with a short neck, a chunky body and a small head with a beak.
“It was a plant-eating dinosaur that wasn’t particularly large by dinosaur standards,” Romilio said.
Anomoepus scambus had a short neck, a chunky body and a small head with a beak.Credit: University of Queensland
The discovery sat unnoticed at Biloela State High School in central Queensland after being donated from Callide Mine 20 years ago.
“Significant fossils like this can sit unnoticed for years – even in plain sight,” Romilio said.
