Picked up by a teen in 1958, this footprint is now Australia’s oldest dinosaur fossil

A footprint discovered near Brisbane nearly seven decades ago has been dated to 230 million years ago, making it the earliest known evidence of dinosaurs on the Australian continent.

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Feb 4, 2026 09:16 AM IST

The dinosaur is thought to have been walking along the side of a waterway when it made the footprint. It took millions of years for the footprint to fossilise and turn into sandstone. (Image: The University of Queensland)

Nearly seven decades after a curious teenager first picked it up, a dusty slab of stone is rewriting Australia’s dinosaur history. In 1958, 14-year-old Bruce Runnegar was visiting a quarry near Brisbane with school friends when something unusual caught his eye. Pressed into the rock was a strange footprint, clearly not left by any modern animal.

Sensing it might be important, Runnegar took the stone home and kept it safe, unsure at the time just how rare the discovery might be. Today, that same footprint is being recognised as Australia’s oldest known dinosaur fossil.

Now a respected palaeontologist, Runnegar recently handed the specimen to researchers at the University of Queensland’s Dinosaur Lab. After a detailed study, scientists confirmed that the roughly 7-inch-long footprint was made by a small, two-legged dinosaur that lived around 230 million years ago. The animal is believed to have been an early sauropodomorph, a primitive relative of the giant, long-necked dinosaurs that would later dominate the planet.

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A fossil hiding in plain sight

The fossil dates back to the Late Triassic period, a time when Australia was part of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana. This places dinosaurs on the Australian landmass far earlier than scientists had previously proved. The findings were recently published in the scientific journal Alcheringa.

What makes the discovery even more remarkable is its location. According to the research team, this is the only dinosaur fossil ever found within an Australian capital city. The quarry where the footprint was discovered has since been developed, so the original location is now lost forever. This footprint is therefore the only tangible evidence of the presence of dinosaurs in Brisbane.

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The dinosaur was estimated to be 2.4 to 2.6 ft tall at the hip and weighed over 300 pounds based on the footprint. While the dinosaur was modest in size, its footprint now carries enormous scientific value.

Runnegar went on to build an academic career, teaching at universities in Australia and the United States. For years, he even used the footprint as a teaching aid, showing students the fossil he had found as a teenager. Only recently did he realise its full importance and contact experts to have it formally studied.

The fossil has since been moved to the Queensland Museum, where it will be preserved for future research. For scientists, this fossil is a rare glimpse into the history of Australia.

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