A new research project will map for the first time the thousands of dinosaur footprints that have been found along Australia’s west coast … but it has prompted fears of a damaging tourist ‘stampede’.
The recently formed Dinosaur Coast Management Group says any additional movement of sand has the potential to damage the prehistoric trackways, and there has even been a previous incident in which a man carved a theropod footprint out of the rock with an angle-grinder before attempting to sell it on the black market.
“There’s always the potential for idiots to come and try to steal them and remove them,” Dinosaur Coast Management Group spokeswoman, Jan Lewis, told the ABC. “The trackways are part of the history of our planet.”
The debate about how these historic sites should be both protected and opened up for tourism was sparked by a research project which has mapped the journeys of enormous dinosaurs up and down the north-western WA coast.
Researcher Steve Salisbury said it was the first time the thousands of footprints have been recorded.
“This is the only window we get on Australia’s dinosaurs from more than 130 million years ago,” Professor Salisbury told the ABC. “Just their tracks, there’s no bones or nothing, so any bit of information we can get out of these footprints are really important for finding out what types of dinosaurs we had back then.”
More than 20 different types of dinosaur compressed muddy sand as they wandered what was then a river plain and the footprints were preserved as the sand later hardened into rock. The research revealed around 70 separate trackways, some created by animals up to 28 metres long. Using its ‘dino-drone’ to film the trackways from the sky, the University of Queensland team produced 3D maps of the coastline.
Tour operator Bart Pigram says the maps will pave the way for increased tourism around the footprints, the location of which locals had tried to keep secret.
“It’s a high risk, very high risk,” he said. “This will come out, and it will blow up this whole area, you’ll probably have thousands more tourists coming to Broome to look at the dinosaur tracks because it’s world-renowned and we’ll be behind the eight-ball.”
· Do you think some of Australia’s natural wonders should be kept ‘secret’ to prevent them from potentially being loved to death? Comment below
Yes they should be kept as “heritage land” not secret…but protected and preserved for all generations to enjoy.