For more than 20 years, a simple white slab sat in the main office of Biloela State High School, blending into the background. It was a relic of the nearby Callide Mine, a gift to the school by a geologist. For most, it was just an impressive rock with multiple chicken-like tracks.
But this unassuming rock has now become one of Australia’s most important fossil finds.
New research led by Anthony Romilio, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland’s Dinosaur Lab, shows that the boulder contains 66 fossilized footprints left by 47 individual dinosaurs. Dating back to the Early Jurassic period, around 200 million years ago, the prints capture a few small ornithischians (bird-hipped dinosaurs) walking across a wet, clay-covered patch of land.
“These footprints provide valuable evidence for the presence, abundance, and behavior of ornithischian dinosaurs in the region,” the study researchers write.
A Fossil Treasure Hidden in Plain Sight
The tracks were assigned to Anomoepus scambus, a small-bodied ornithischian. Mostly herbivores, the ornithischians were a group that would later give rise to the famous Triceratops and Edmontosaurus. But in the Early Jurassic, before those behemoths appeared, their ancestors were still small, fleet-footed creatures.
With three-toed feet, long legs, and a beaked head, these dinosaurs likely roamed in groups, grazing along riverbanks. The tracks appear to be oriented in the same direction which could suggest gregarious behavior, with multiple individuals moving together, though the authors caution that other explanations—such as a natural barrier directing movement—cannot be ruled out. The prints also suggest they were moving at a leisurely pace, no more than 6 km/h.
The fossil’s significance went unnoticed until locals, familiar with Romilio’s work at Mount Morgan—a site famous for its dinosaur tracks—reached out to him. Using advanced 3D imaging and light filters, Romilio was able to digitally enhance the prints, revealing hidden details embedded in the stone.
“Significant fossils like this can sit unnoticed for years, even in plain sight,” Romilio said in a press release. “It’s incredible to think that a piece of history this rich was resting in a schoolyard all this time.”
Extremely old fossils like those from the dinosaur era are mostly encased in rock. For the untrained eye, all rocks look the same. So it’s not surprising to hear that this wasn’t the first time Romilio came across important rock fossils that were treated as ordinary boulders. At Callide Mine, Romilio discovered another fossilized rock being used as a carpark entry delineator. This two-ton slab contained two dinosaur footprints, left by a slightly larger bipedal dinosaur with 80 cm-long legs. A third fossil had an even stranger fate—it had been encased in resin and used as a bookend.
When Footprints Last
Dinosaur bones from the early Jurassic are almost totally absent in Australia. This is why these footprints are so valuable, helping to fill in the blanks. The study’s authors note that similar tracks have been found at other Jurassic sites in Queensland, including Mount Morgan and Carnarvon Gorge. No ornithischian bones from the era have been unearthed until now.
Why the mismatch? The answer likely lies in the nature of fossil preservation. Bone fossils require specific conditions to form—rapid burial, mineral-rich waters, and the absence of scavengers. Footprints, on the other hand, can be preserved under very different circumstances, often in environments where bones would decay quickly. This is a classic example of what paleontologists call a Type I deposit: a site where only trace fossils, like footprints, survive.
A Call to the Public for More Discoveries
Despite their abundance, no bones of Anomoepus have been found in Australia—only their footprints. But Romilio is hopeful that could change.
“For the vast majority of fossils in Australia, most … are not found by paleontologists,” he told The Guardian. “It’s other people raising their hand and asking: is this significant or not?”
The discovery at Biloela raises an exciting question: What other prehistoric secrets are hiding in plain sight?
The findings appeared in An International Journal of Paleobiology.
