Paleontologists just discovered the world's biggest dinosaur footprint in 'Australia's Jurassic Park'

Paleontologists found a huge dinosaur print.

(Image credit: JEFF PACHOUD/AFP/Getty Images)

published 27 March 2017

Paleontologists have discovered the world's largest dinosaur footprint in a region of Australia's Dampier Peninsula coastline dubbed "Australia's Jurassic Park." The print measures nearly 5 feet, 9 inches in length. Previously, the biggest dinosaur footprint ever discovered was one found last July in Bolivia that measured nearly 3 feet, 9 inches long.

The footprint found in Australia is believed to have been left by a type of sauropod dinosaur, "long-necked, large plant-eaters" that Gizmodo noted "have been found on every continent except Antarctica." "The giant footprints are no doubt spectacular," Steve Salisbury, the lead author of the study and a professor at the University of Queensland, told CNN. "There's nothing that comes close."

The record-setting footprint wasn't the only fascinating find made by Salisbury and his team: They also discovered the region was once home to a remarkably diverse dinosaur population. "The tracks provide a snapshot, a census if you will, of an extremely diverse dinosaur fauna," Salisbury told Gizmodo. "Twenty-one different types of dinosaurs all living together at the same time in the same area. We have never seen this level of diversity before, anywhere in the world. It's the Cretaceous equivalent of the Serengeti! And it's written in stone."