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Huge Dinosaur Footprints Have Been Found And The Pics Will Make Your Jaw Drop

by Hope Schreiber
Vimeo

"Jurassic Park" may be a movie to you, but to Australian coastlines and paleontologists, "Jurassic Park" is home to an unprecedented number of dinosaur tracks on an Australian coastline.

Like, really.

"Jurassic Park" is a real place to them.

The coastline in Australian, lovingly dubbed "Jurassic Park," was named after paleontologists found an "unprecedented" number of dinosaur tracks, some dating back around 130 million years.

Thanks to researchers from the University of Queensland and James Cook University, the Dampier Peninsula has official been identified as a home to prehistoric beasts.

Researchers at these universities documented thousands of footprints along the 16 miles of coast.

The most recent analysis took five years, from 2011-2016, and it was published in the "Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology."

The footprints are centered around the coast of Yanijarri, Walmadany and Kardilakam-Jajal Buru, which are located in the northwest of Australia and where a number of scientists use drones to observe and document the tides.

They are linked to as many as 21 sauropod, theropod, ornithopod and thyreophoran dinosaur species. Some even measure up to 1.7 meters (5 feet, 6 inches) in length.

Dr. Steven Salisbury describes the diversity of the tracks as globally unparalleled. He says,

It's is extremely significant, forming the record of non-avian dinosaurs in the western half of the continent and providing the only glimpse of Australia's dinosaur fauna during the first half of the Early Cretaceous Period.

He added,

There are thousands of tracks around Walmadany. Of these, 150 can confidently be assigned to 21 specific track types, representing four main groups of dinosaurs. Among the tracks is the only confirmed evidence for stegosaurus in Australia. There are also some of the largest dinosaur tracks ever recorded. Some of the sauropod tracks are around 1.7m long.

So, really, it's just a matter of time before they can make dinosaurs real again to devour you, right?

Citations: Jurassic highway: Thousands of dino footprints uncovered, including rare stegosaurus tracks (VIDEO) (RT)