Queensland Facts

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Dinosaur Stampede National Monument

The dinosaur trackways within the Lark Quarry Conservation Park are nationally significant because of their abundance and their location within an interpreted landscape and behavioural context. They are currently the best known and most informative fossilized trackways within Australia (Molnar 1991 p659) and their excellent condition places them among the best-preserved dinosaur trackway sites in the world (Long 1998 p126).

The integrity and fine preservation of the trackways can be attributed to the characteristics of the clay-sand matrix in which they were originally formed. Fine detail such as scratch marks in the digit imprints on some Skartopus australis tracks (Thulborn and Wade 1984 p427) as well as the presence of scrape marks across many of the Wintonopus latomorum tracks (Thulborn and Wade 1984 p421) attest to the high level of preservation of the trackways.

Lark Quarry and Seymour Quarry are the only known fossil sites that preserve trackways made by numerous dinosaurs running in a single direction. This unusual behaviour is consistent with, and has been interpreted as, a dinosaur stampede event (Thulborn 1990 p324). No other known trackway site in the world indicates dinosaur stampede behaviour such as this (Wade and Molnar 2000 p3).

The trackways contain the most concentrated known set of dinosaur footprints in the world (Cook 2004). Lark Quarry and Seymour Quarry contain between 170 and 200 individual dinosaur trackways made up of nearly 4000 individual footprints (Wade and Molnar 2000 p2). The trackways are almost entirely pointed in a single, northeasterly direction (Thulborn and Wade 1984 p414) although there are 11 large theropod footprints comprising a single trackway that point in a southwesterly direction (Wade and Molnar 2000 p1).

At Lark Quarry, the trackways are in an area of approximately 200m2 of exposed, almost horizontal bedding plain (Thulborn and Wade 1984 p414) that is roughly triangular in shape (Wade and Molnar 2000 p1). The trackways at both Seymour and New Quarries (which are an extension of those found at Lark Quarry) (Thulborn and Wade 1984 p414 and Cook 2004)) are currently buried.

The primary research conducted on the dinosaur trackways within the Lark Quarry Conservation Park is commonly cited as the benchmark for study into dinosaur footprints and behaviour (Cook 2004). As the place preserves nearly all of the fossil tracks made by running dinosaurs known worldwide, it is an important and rare information source for locomotion studies and performance analysis for both ornithopods and coelurosaurs (Thulborn pers. comm. 2002).

The study of the dinosaur trackways within the Lark Quarry Conservation Park has also provided a large body of published information that has contributed to the understanding of the Australian environment during the Cretaceous (Long 2004).

It is estimated that a further 20 000 to 80 000 unexcavated footprints may be contained within the stratigraphic layer bearing the known stampede event. As a result, there is scope for further discovery and research. The areas most likely to contain these footprints are southwest of Lark Quarry as well as the area between Lark and New Quarries and may extend deep into the hillside (Cook 2004).

This document has been prepared by the Australian Government's Department of Environment and Heritage. The help received from Australian government departments, associated organisations and other authorities is gratefully acknowledged. Money values are in Australian currency, weights and measures in metric.