A 115-million-year-old fossilized footprint from a three-toed dinosaur was destroyed by vandals at Bunurong Marine National Park in Australia last week. Although the perpetrator(s) have not yet been identified, park officials believe the footprint was deliberately destroyed by someone who knew what it was and what significance it held.
The footprint was whacked with a blunt object, perhaps a hammer or rock and purposely smashed and chipped away, The BBC reported. Park officials were able to retrieve some of the broken pieces of the footprint and may be able to restore it to some degree. However, it will likely never be quite like the original print.
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"It's sad to think a person or persons who knew the location of the footprint would deliberately damage an important local icon that is recognized as being of international scientific significance," Parks Victoria, the Australian government agency of the state of Victoria Australia, Ranger Team Leader Brian Martin said in a press release emailed to Newsweek.
Back in 2006, when the fossilized dinosaur print was first discovered, paleontologists from Museum Victoria and Monash University, both in Australia, made a silicone rubber mold of the print. However, the actual print was left in its original spot so that the public could see it, not inside of a museum but out in nature. According to the park's statement, the footprint stood as a "moment frozen in time" marking when a once-living dinosaur stood at that very spot over a hundred million years ago.
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There are more trace fossils in the world than there are body fossils, which are fossils of the actual organism or some part of it. Unlike the fossilized remains of bones, trace fossils include fossilized tracks, burrows, feeding marks, resting marks and, of course, footprints of ancient creatures. According to the American Geosciences Institute, trace fossils are usually formed in soft mud or sand near a body of water. These impressions were then quickly covered by sediments from the water. The sediments dry and harden the mark before it has a chance to be erased by natural elements. Eventually this dried mark in the mud is buried and becomes compacted into rock.
Although it's not possible to tell exactly what type of dinosaur the footprint belonged too, from the number of toes we know that it was a theropod. According to Berkeley University, this group of dinosaurs includes some of the largest land carnivores to ever exist, such as the famous T. rex. Other characteristics that identify this group include hollow, thin-walled bones and three main "fingers" on the "hand." Most dinosaurs in this group also had shark teeth and claws on all of their fingers and toes.
Park officials will continue their search to identify the vandals who have destroyed the fossilized print, and have called upon the public for tips and help.
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