360 Panoramas | Dinosaur Coast

What the Dinosaur Coast may have looked like 130 million years ago.

Palaeo Artist: Damir G Martin
Palaeontologist: Assoc Prof Steve Salisbury

Broome … 130 Million Years Ago

Around Broome 130 million years ago, dinosaurs occasionally emerged from the forest to cross the sandy tidal flats and river channels, leaving tracks that would persist for millions of years. There were herds of sauropods, a few stalking theropods and the occasional ornithopod.

The coastal tidal flats were part of a broad delta system, probably 5 to 10 kilometres across and barren of vegetation.

Sauropods were gigantic, long-necked plant-eaters that moved on four legs. The ‘Broome’ sauropods are estimated to have measured 10 to 30+ metres in length, stood 3.2 to 5.5 metres high at the hip, and may have included some of the largest dinosaurs in the world.

Theropods were meat-eaters; they ran on two legs and had sharp claws and teeth to help them catch and devour their prey. The ‘Broome’ theropods are estimated to have measured 3.5 to 7 metres in length and stood 1.3 to 2 metres high at the hip when fully grown. While these tracks were first described by Western scientists in the late 1960s, they are well known to local indigenous people as the tracks of a Dreamtime creation being called Marala, the ‘Emu Man’.

Palaeo Artist: Damir G Martin
Palaeontologist: Assoc Prof Steve Salisbury

Walmadany … 130 Million Years Ago

130 million years ago, Walmadany (James Price Point), now part of the Dampier Peninsula, would have looked similar to the Limpopo River of sub-Saharan Africa – a vast river plain, crisscrossed by abandoned channels and sandbars, opening into a delta system farther south.

Wandering across this river plain were herds of lumbering sauropods, stegosaurs and giant ornithopods, making their way to fern-dominated swamp forests on either side. A lone predatory theropod might have stalked the herds from afar.

Sauropods were gigantic, long-necked plant-eaters that moved on four legs. The sauropods of Walmadany, which probably included some of the largest dinosaurs that ever lived, measured 10 to 30+ metres in length and stood 3.2 to 5.5 metres high at the hip.

Thyreophorans were plant-eaters that also moved on four legs. The ones that left footprints at Walmadany measured 1 to 4+ metres at the hip and had an estimated length of 3.5 to 8.5 metres.

The ornithopods of Walmadany included small–medium-sized bipedal (two-legged) herbivores, as well as lumbering giants the size of a small bus. They are estimated to have measured 0.5 to 3+ metres high at the hips and varied in length from 2 to 8+ metres.

Theropods were meat-eaters, they stood on two legs and had sharp claws and teeth to help catch and devour their prey. The theropods of Walmadany are estimated to measure 3.5 to 7 metres in length and stood 0.8 to 2 metres high at the hip. While these theropod tracks were first described by Western scientists in 2017, they are well known to local indigenous people. Some of them are known as the tracks of a Dreamtime creation being called Marala, the ‘Emu Man’.