PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

ABC News reported on March 12 that scientists have just found a series of fossilized dinosaur footprints on a dusty rock slab inside a school in Australia.

The rock went largely unnoticed for more than 20 years, until a rural school in Banana, Queensland, asked University of Queensland paleontologist Anthony Romilio to examine a cluster of three-toed footprints.

The slab, which bears dozens of fossil footprints dating back to the early Jurassic period, some 200 million years ago, represents “one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur footprints” ever recorded in Australia, Mr Romilio said.

"This is an unprecedented view of dinosaur abundance, movement and behaviour from a time when no fossil dinosaur bones had been found in Australia. Important fossils like this can lie dormant for years, even when clearly visible," AFP quoted him as saying.

“It's incredible to think that such a rich piece of history was in the schoolyard all that time,” he added.

Miners dug up the slab in 2002 and noticed unusual footprints. They donated it to the school to display in its lobby. The slab remained there until researchers began asking about the possibility of finding dinosaur fossils in the area.

PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

Mr Romilio said 66 separate footprints were found on the slab, which covers a surface area of ​​less than 1 ^square meter. They belonged to a dinosaur called Anomoepus scambus , a small, bipedal herbivore.

Mr Romilio's fossil hunt in the area also uncovered a two-ton boulder marking the entrance to a coal mine car park.

“As I pulled into the parking lot, I saw one of those rocks. And it had a dinosaur fossil as clear as day. My jaw dropped when I saw it,” he said.

The discovery by Mr. Romilio and his team was published in the journal Historical Biology .