The Dinosaur Tracks of Western Australia May Go Extinct

You really have to want to visit Broome and nearby environs in the Kimberly region of Western Australia, because it’s a long ways from nearly everywhere else in the world. Even of the Australians I’ve met, relatively few have been there, despite Broome’s beautiful beaches, camel rides on those beaches, a wonderful open-air theater (the oldest In Australia), pearling history, longtime connections to Asian culture, small-town feel, and charming locals. Oh, and its dinosaur tracks, which of course was one of the reasons why I was motivated to go there with my wife Ruth in 2009.

Anyone up for some “ichnotourism”? At low tide near Broome (Western Australia), you can see some of the biggest dinosaur tracks in the world, made by sauropods about 130 million years ago. Or, you could put a gas-processing plant on top of them and build a port, which will generate absolutely no ichnotourism, stuff up the local environments, and if anything drive people away from the area. Hmm, tough choice: (A) short-term profits benefiting a few people and causing lots of collateral damage, vs. (B) preserving a world-famous natural resource, coastal environments, and cultural heritage that will continue to give back tourism dollars to the local community in perpetuity. Not to bias you, but I’m going with (B). (BTW, lovely wife Ruth for scale.)

Keeping Track of Fossil Tracks

The fossil thieves drove their sport ute into the Western Australia outback in the middle of the night, confident that no one would see them. Just to make sure, though, they turned off their headlights the last kilometer before their destination, using moonlight to keep their tires on the unsealed road. Once at the site, they used torches (flashlights) to search the ground, and quickly found what they were seeking. They pulled out a portable rock saw from of the back of the vehicle and cut through the 120-million-year old sandstone, the abrasive sound masked by nearby waves crashing during high tide. The sandstone bed was thick, but split evenly along its bedding plane so the thieves were able to use a lever bar to pry up each square. These blocks were heaved onto the truck bed; blankets were used to cushion them below and cover them above. The perpetrators got into the truck and sped away from the site, well before the first rays of the morning sun revealed the newly made and oddly square holes in the rock. They had just taken some of the few stegosaur tracks known from the geologic record, and they had stolen these from aboriginal tribal land. It was both a crime against the state and a grave insult to the people who regarded these tracks as part of their heritage.

Nice dinosaur track you got there. It’d be a shame if something happened to it. Track is from a large theropod dinosaur, preserved in Early Cretaceous sandstone of Western Australia. Please don’t take it, legally or otherwise.