Vandals damage ancient dinosaur footprint in Australia

Image copyrightPARKS VICTORIA

Image captionThe damaged footprint with missing toe sections

Vandals have partially destroyed a 115 million year old dinosaur footprint in a national park in Australia.

Palaeontologists first discovered the imprint of the theropod dinosaur in a tidal rock platform in Flat Rocks, Victoria in 2006.

The area is a well-known dinosaur fossil area and one of the few Ice Age-era dinosaur sites around the world.

Authorities believe the vandals used a hammer to chip away at the three-toed mark which is about 30cm wide.

"It looked like somebody had taken to it with either a hammer or a rock, and had broken off sections of the toes," Parks Victoria ranger Brian Martin told the BBC.

Image copyrightPARKS VICTORIA

Image captionThe dinosaur footprint before the damage

They left the "freshly broken" pieces scattered around the rock platform, he said.

An official leading a school group to the area last week discovered the damage.

Mr Martin said the perpetrators deliberately targeted the imprint, which had been left uncovered for public enjoyment.

"They would need to know exactly where it is to find it, many people quite easily walk right past it," he said.

State authorities said they were disheartened by the damage.

"The significance of the footprint is that it represents a moment frozen in time when a meat-eating dinosaur stood on that spot and left an impression of its foot," Parks Victoria said on Wednesday.