In a corner of Biloela state high school’s main office sits an unassuming white slab, covered with fossilised dinosaur footprints.
New analysis suggests the boulder, hiding in plain sight at the central Queensland school for more than 20 years, contains one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur prints documented in Australia.
The slab has 66 fossilised footprints from 47 individual dinosaurs – dating from the Early Jurassic period about 200m years ago – on the surface, research led by Dr Anthony Romilio of the University of Queensland Dinosaur Lab suggests.
The three-toed footprints have been assigned the name Anomoepus scambus, the ichnospecies of a small, plant-eating dinosaur that moved on two legs. Skeletal fossils found overseas suggest similar tracks were made by dinosaurs withlong legs, short arms and a chunky body, though no specific species has been identified in Australia.
Romilio described the boulder as significant given that no dinosaur skeletal remains from that time had yet been found in Australia. “We don’t have their bones but we know that they were around,” he said.
Fossilised footprints found around Biloela, Callide, Carnarvon Gorge and Mount Morgan pointed to abundant dinosaur numbers in central Queensland, Romilio said. “Around that Early Jurassic period, they seem to be all over the place.”
The slab, less than one square metre in area, contains 13 distinct trackways that make up roughly half of the 66 footprints.
The prints were likely to have been made over days or weeks in mud covered by shallow water, as the animals possibly walked along or crossed a waterway, Romilio said. “It would be a river-type system that is depositing sediment.”
The boulder was discovered at Callide mine in 2002 and given to Biloela state high by a geologist, Wes Nichols, whose wife was a teacher there at the time.
Its significance went overlooked for decades until community members contacted Romilio after seeing his work on dinosaur footprints at nearby Mount Morgan.
Another fossil documented in the same study also went unnoticed for years until Romilio chanced upon it at Callide mine, where it was being used as a car park entry delineator.
“My jaw dropped,” Romilio said, describing the two-tonne rock containing two dinosaur footprints as “a huge delight”.
To better see the fossilised footprints, Romilio combined photographs of each rock into a 3D model, adjusting contrast and lighting to make their outlines clearer.
Given the significance of the discovery and anticipated public interest, the school’s boulder is to be displayed at the office of the Banana shire council.
The Banana shire mayor, Nev Ferrier, said the discovery was a reminder of how rich and unique the local landscape was.
“This is huge – not just for Biloela but for the whole country,” he said. “Who would have thought that a simple rock sitting in the school foyer for years would turn out to be one of Australia’s most important fossil finds? It just goes to show that our region is full of surprises.”
Though no bones corresponding to the Anomoepus tracks have been found in Australia to date, Romilio is hopeful that public tipoffs may lead to future discoveries.
“For the vast majority of fossils in Australia, most … are not found by palaeontologists – it’s other people raising their hand and asking: is this significant or not?
“Maybe this will be another start to another adventure.”
The research has been published in the journal Historical Biology.
This article was corrected on 14 March 2025. An earlier version stated Anomoepus scambus was a dinosaur – it is the ichnospecies, or fossil trace, of a dinosaur.
