Brisbane Dinosaur Fossil is Australia’s Oldest
By Science Correspondent
Researchers from the University of Queensland have confirmed that Brisbane’s only known dinosaur fossil is the oldest ever found in Australia, dating back around 230 million years to the early Late Triassic period.
The fossil, an 18.5-centimetre footprint, was discovered in 1958 at Petrie’s Quarry in Albion by a teenage student but remained largely unexamined for more than six decades.
Dr Anthony Romilio from UQ’s Dinosaur Lab said the footprint provides rare and direct evidence that dinosaurs lived in Australia far earlier than scientists once believed.
“Subsequent urban development has made the original site inaccessible, leaving this footprint as the only surviving dinosaur evidence from the area,” Dr Romilio said.
“It’s likely the dinosaur was walking through or alongside a waterway when it left the footprint before it was then preserved in sandstone, which was cut millions of years later to construct buildings across Brisbane.
“Without the foresight to preserve this material, Brisbane’s dinosaur history would still be completely unknown.”
The track was made by a small, two-legged dinosaur, most likely an early sauropodomorph — a primitive ancestor of the long-necked dinosaurs that appeared later.
Based on the footprint’s size, Dr Romilio estimates the animal stood about 75 to 80 centimetres high at the hip and weighed roughly 140 kilograms.
The fossil was collected by Professor Bruce Runnegar, now a UQ Honorary Professor, who found it as a teenager while visiting the quarry with friends.
“At the time, we suspected the marks might be dinosaur tracks, but we couldn’t have imagined their national significance,” Professor Runnegar said.
He later studied and taught palaeontology in Australia and the United States, using the fossil as a teaching example before contacting Dr Romilio to have it formally studied.
“It was a great example of a special kind of trace fossil because the footprint was made in sediment by a heavy animal,” he said.
“More than 60 years after we found it, it’s extraordinary to see it recognised as Australia’s oldest dinosaur fossil.”
The fossil is now housed at the Queensland Museum where it will be available for ongoing research.
