Dozens of dinosaur footprints found at Australian school, scientists say

Dozens of dinosaur footprints embedded in a boulder were found hiding in plain sight at a school in Australia, according to researchers.

The large rock was excavated from the Callide Basin in central Queensland and gifted to the Moura State High School, where it sat unnoticed for two decades, according to the University of Queensland.

When paleontologists were asked by the school to examine a cluster of three-toed track marks on the boulder, they found it contains one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur footprints per square meter ever documented in the country, according to a paper published Monday in Historical Biology.

The rock contains 66 footprints from 47 individual dinosaurs, Anthony Romilio, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland and lead author of the study, said in a statement. The footprints were likely imprinted onto the boulder as the dinosaurs passed across a patch of wet, white clay, possibly walking along or crossing a waterway during the Early Jurassic period, about 200 million years ago, Romilio said.

"It's an unprecedented snapshot of dinosaur abundance, movement and behavior from a time when no fossilized dinosaur bones have been found in Australia," Romilio said.

Each footprint has three toes, indicating that they belong to the ichnospecies Anomoepus scambus, small dinosaurs with legs between 6 inches and 20 inches, Romilio said. They were likely traveling less than 4 mph, the researchers determined.

Skeletal fossils from dinosaurs with these types of feet indicate that they were likely plant eaters with long legs, a chunky body and short arms, Romilio said.

While the boulder was resting in the schoolyard for years, advanced 3D imaging and light filters were able to reveal the hidden details in the footprints, Romilio said.

"It's incredible to think that a piece of history this rich was resting in a schoolyard all this time," he said.