World's biggest dinosaur footprint found in 'Australia's Jurassic Park'

Palaeontologists have discovered the world's biggest known dinosaur footprints along a remote stretch of coastline in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

At least 21 different species have been found - so many that researchers have dubbed the area "Australia's Jurassic Park".

One of the tracks features footprints of a sauropod measuring 5ft 7ins, eclipsing the previous record of 3ft 6in, discovered in Mongolia.

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Dr Steve Salisbury, who has studied the prints, says the animal that made them would have measured around 18ft from floor to hip.

Speaking to ABC News, he said a footprint that big might at first seem scientifically impossible and the sheer size of the prints had caused them to be overlooked at first.

"These animals did exist," he added. "They were out there and we're seeing evidence of them having existed in the Kimberley 130 million years ago based on these tracks."

The sauropod family, which includes the brontosaurus, lived around 130 million years ago at Walmadany in Kimberley, north of Broome. That makes them considerably older than the previously oldest-known dinosaur fossils in Australia, which are between 90 million and 115 million years old.

The soft ground the prints were made in has since hardened to form sandstone rock platforms on the coast.