World's Largest Dinosaur Footprints Discovered In Western Australia (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The largest known dinosaur footprints have been discovered in Western Australia, including 1.7 meter prints left by gigantic herbivores. Until now, the biggest known dinosaur footprint was a 106cm track discovered in the Mongolian desert and reported last year. At the new site, along the Kimberley shoreline in a remote region of Western Australia, paleontologists discovered a rich collection of dinosaur footprints in the sandstone rock, many of which are only visible at low tide. The prints, belonging to about 21 different types of dinosaur, are also thought to be the most diverse collection of prints in the world. Steve Salisbury, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Queensland told ABC News: "We've got several tracks up in that area that are about 1.7 meters long. So most people would be able to fit inside tracks that big, and they indicate animals that are probably around 5.3 to 5.5 meters at the hip, which is enormous." "It is extremely significant, forming the primary record of non-avian dinosaurs in the western half the continent and providing the only glimpse of Australia's dinosaur fauna during the first half of the early Cretaceous period," he said. The findings were reported in the Memoir of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. The largest tracks belonged to sauropods, huge Diplodocus-like herbivores with long necks and tails. The scientists also discovered tracks from about four different types of ornithopod dinosaurs (two-legged herbivores) and six types of armored dinosaurs, including Stegosaurs, which had not previously been seen in Australia. At the time the prints were left, 130m years ago, the area was a large river delta and dinosaurs would have traversed wet sandy areas between surrounding forests.
Perhaps even more amazing, consider the catastrophic bad luck that befell the planet's dominant life form, and allowed our kind a window in which to proliferate.
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It is useless to study dinosaurs. They don't exist and haven't existed for tens of millions of years.
I see you're unfamiliar with birds.
Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.
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How 'bout a 'bloomin onion, govner?
FFS
1. 'blooming onion' is a menu item from a US restaurant chain serving American cuisine in which the items are typically and arbitrarily given Australian names. (although in this particular case the item does not have an Australianized named)
2. 'govner' is a bad rendition of an English (UK) word which does not have any traction in Oz.
Struth mate. Nothing you wrote has anything to do with straya and you definetly can't talk strine.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
One of the famous mathematicians of the 1800s was proud that his work had no practical applications. (Sorry, I don't remember which one.) Lots of mathematical work seems that way, yet his work and much else that seemed useless at the time is now essential for fields like cryptography.
Paleontology? Toy makers, movie makers, and vast hordes of children love dinosaurs. For some children, interest in dinosaurs leads to an interest in science generally.
Paleontology leads directly into study of evolution and helps damage mythologies such as religion. (Is that why you're so sensitive?) If you are so interested in preventing the waste of resources, do something to prevent colleges from teaching their students how to provoke riots.
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No. They would have been killed off by something meaner and more poisonous.
Have gnu, will travel.