115-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Footprint Destroyed In National Park

A dinosaur footprint survived in Australian rock for 115 million years only to be destroyed by vandals in 2017.

A state parks department in Australia told BBC News that the footprint fossil, which was not covered so as to let members of the public enjoy it, showed signs that someone had chipped away at it. The perpetrator or perpetrators pecked pieces off the three toes at the top of the impression, which is almost a foot wide, and left those pieces lying around on the surrounding rock surface.

“It looked like somebody had taken to it with either a hammer or a rock, and had broken off sections of the toes,” Parks Victoria ranger Brian Martin said, according to the BBC. He added that whoever was responsible must have intentionally targeted the fossil: “They would need to know exactly where it is to find it, many people quite easily walk right past it.”

The footprint is part of a site that Parks Victoria refers to as “ Dinosaur Dreaming,” within the Bunurong Marine Park on the central coast of Victoria. Paleontologists discovered it in 2006 at the park, near Inverloch, on a rock platform known as Flat Rocks.

A “silicon rubber mold” of the footprint remains, according to the department.

“The significance of the footprint is that it represents a moment frozen in time when a meat-eating dinosaur stood on that spot and left an impression of its foot,” the department said. “So, it is quite disheartening for a site of such significance that attracts hundreds of people every year to the area has been damaged in such a careless manner.”

An investigation into the incident was underway.

“The thrill of seeing a real dinosaur footprint has been diminished with the callous act of vandalism,” Bunurong Environment Centre Education Officer Mike Cleeland said in the Parks Victoria statement. “Fortunately, I was able to retrieve some of the broken pieces of the footprint and hopefully the technicians at Museum Victoria may be able to restore the footprint to some degree.”

Paleontologists have discovered dinosaur tracks in other parts of Australia as well. At one coastal site, thousands of tracks connected to a couple dozen species were found earlier this year, sometimes covered up by the tides.