Beachgoer stumbles upon 130 million-year-old dinosaur footprints

Beachgoer Bindi Lee Porth found much more than the seashells she was searching for on a recent trip to Western Australia's Cable Beach. While scouring the sand for shells, Porth said she spotted numerous massive footprints. The prints, later verified by experts, turned out to be from a Megalosaurus Broomensis, a carnivorous dinosaur that roamed the Earth some 130 million years ago.

"It was a type of theropod dinosaur, a carnivorous one," University of Queensland paleontologist Steve Salisbury told CNN. "The tracks are about 30 to 50 centimeters (1 to 1.6 feet) long so we can tell the dinosaur was probably about 1.5 meters (5 feet) high at the hips and maybe 2.5 to 4 meters (8 to 13 feet) long." Salisbury said the tracks had probably been hidden by sand or water for years, but were finally revealed by Cable Beach's "erratic tides."

"The kids didn't believe me at first," Porth said, "but I was right."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up