Gas Hub Threatens Dinosaur Footprints

Broome, Western Australia. It's home to fabulous Cable Beach, a seemingly endless stretch of white sand meeting the blue waters of the Indian Ocean in a tropical setting. Below the blue waters of the Indian Ocean, a renowned pearling industry thrives, sending pearls to jewelers worldwide. Yet there resides a treasure under the surface of the water that isn't as well known: dinosaur footprints.

Tourists visit the dinosaur footprints at Gantheaume Point, just outside of Broome. However, few realize that these footprints are part of an 80-km stretch of fossilized dinosaur tracks. These tracks were made by multiple species of sauropod, theropod, and orinthopod dinosaurs, some of whose skeletons have yet to be found. The extent of this track was only revealed in 1994 by Thulborn and colleagues. Some of the sauropod tracks are up to 1.5 m long and could belong to the largest animals to have ever walked on the planet.

This 80-km historic landmark could soon be rudely interrupted with the construction of a gas hub at James Price Point, to be run by a consortium including Shell, BP, and Woodside Energy. What is at risk here is the world's largest and most significant stretch of dinosaur footprints. There are as many as 15 different types of dinosaurs known to man, and for some types, these footprints are the only evidence that they ever existed in Australia.

Paleontologists fear the sand dredging of channels and construction of infrastructure associated with the gas hub will negatively affect the footprints.

"There are tracks occurring immediately at James Price Point, where the proposed plant is planned to be built. Those tracks will be destroyed. There's no doubt about that. Of greater concern is the impact on tracks occurring in the intertidal zone, in that these are very prone to changes in sand and wave motion," says Dr. Steven Salisbury from the University of Queensland.

"Some of the best track sites, occurring near the central part of the Dampier Peninsula not far from James Price Point, could get covered by sand."

Nowhere else in the world contains such rich visual evidence of dinosaurs roaming the earth. It is not just worth protecting; it deserves increased emphasis as a paleontological treasure. The extent of information that the footprints can provide has only recently come to light. It is a significant site for the study of prehistoric life, in not just Western Australia, but globally. This landmark deserves to be respected, not defaced in favor of a consortium gas hub.

--Magdeline Lum

Image Credit: Dr. Steven Salisbury