Palaeontologist makes plea to save dinosaur tracks

An eastern states palaeontologist says Australia cannot afford to sacrifice a series of rare dinosaur footprints at the site of the proposed Kimberley gas hub, north of Broome in north-west Western Australia. 

The huge footprints, scattered around the Dampier Peninsula coastline, are the only evidence that stegosauruses once roamed the continent [Credit: ABC]

Dr Steven Salisbury, from the University of Queensland, has spent the past week touring the Kimberley coast studying fossilised footprints. 

He says his research suggests a group of prints at James Price Point could be more significant than first thought. 

"I don't want to give anything away right now but I can say that yes there are dinosaur footprints and quite important ones and I hope to go away now and quickly process the information we've been gathering and get that out there for people to see," he said. 

Dr Salisbury says the loss of several prints around James Price Point would devastate the science world. 

"You've got one of the longest chains of dinosaur sites in the world, with an incredible diversity of footprints and to think that any of that could be compromised, it's completely inappropriate and it would be such a shame because there's nothing like it in the world." he said. 

Dr Salisbury says he will release his findings shortly. 

Source: ABC News Website [July 12, 2011]