Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
In 1989, another isolated dinosaur track was found during a fossil hunt by a
group led by Tom Rich. They discovered it at a place called Skenes Creek, which
wasmorethan30km(19mi)eastofKnowledgeCreek,butwithrocksthesameage
as those at Knowledge Creek, Dinosaur Cove, and Milanesia Beach. This specimen
was also a small ornithopod track and nearly the same as the one from Knowledge
Creek. Fortunately, the field crew had a rock saw with them, so they neatly cut the
surrounding rock into an easily transportable square slab, and likewise took it to
Museum Victoria. Once deposited, it received a catalog number and sat in the mu-
seum for the next 21 years. I saw it in its museum drawer in May 2010—only three
weeks before our sojourn to Milanesia Beach—and verified it as the second dino-
saur track reported from the Eumeralla Formation. However, it still has not been
formally described in the scientific literature, so it remains known to only a few
paleontologists and does not get any of the public notice showered on its almost-
identical twin from Knowledge Creek.
The other two dinosaur tracks from Victoria were both made by large thero-
pods and are east of Melbourne, at the Dinosaur Dreaming dig site in the geologic-
ally older rocks (115-120 million years old) of the Strzelecki Group. I found one in
2006 during my first visit to Dinosaur Dreaming. Sadly, Tom Rich—who was with
me at the time—had not yet accepted my ichnological abilities and disregarded it
as a dinosaur track. A year later, in 2007, a dig site volunteer, then-student Tyler
Lamb, found a nicely defined track of about the same size only about 5 m (16 ft)
fromthemain digsite. Yes,Ifelt vindicated, butalso veryhappyforTylerthat he'd
discoveredsuchanimportantspecimen.Laterin2007,Ireportedonbothtracksina
posterpresentedattheSocietyofVertebratePaleontologymeetinginAustin,Texas.
This poster got a fair amount of media attention because it was touted as evidence
of a “polar predator” from the Cretaceous, a mixing of theropods and polar dino-
saurs that somehow inspired the public imagination.
So there you go: four definite dinosaur tracks from all of the Cretaceous of
Victoria after more than a hundred years of paleontological research in those rocks.
