At the southern end of Cable Beach, approximately 6 kilometers from the town of Broome in Western Australia is Gantheaume Point, a scenic area of red sandstone cliffs where one can observe footprints of dinosaurs that once roamed in this area. The fossilized footprints are located on the flat rocks 30 meters out to the sea and can only be seen at low tide. The tracks are 130 million years old and extend in patches for 80 kilometers along the coast. There are walk trails down to the flat sandstone rocks on which the footprints are preserved. A couple of plaster casts have been made of the original prints and embedded into the rocks at the top of the cliff for anyone who visits at high tide, or if you don’t want to walk on the slippery reef, which can get dangerous.
Plaster casts of dinosaur footprints at Gantheaume Point. Photo credit
During the Cretaceous period, Broome was a massive river delta rich with dinosaur life. At least nine species of dinosaur footprints have been identified at Gantheaume Point. The tracks found in the area prove that all the main groups of dinosaurs inhabited Australia. There are tracks of meat-eaters related to the famous Tyrannosaurus, armoured ankylosaurs, vegetarian ornithopods and stegosaurus, and the immense sauropod which left behind a print measuring 1.7 meters across.
At Gantheaume Point you can see good examples of three-toed theropod prints and enormous round sauropod prints.
Also see: Cal Orcko: A 300 Feet Wall With Over 5,000 Dinosaur Footprints
Sources: ABC.net, Geocaching, www.stmarysbroome.wa.edu.au
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