Paleontologists to review Western Australia's dinosaur footprints

Dinosaur footprints near the proposed multi-billion dollar Kimberley gas hub in Western Australia (WA) will be examined by Canadian and U.S. paleontologists, local media reported on Thursday.

The dinosaur footprints are embedded in rock close to where the state and federal governments want to build a 35 billion AU dollars (35.85 billion U.S. dollars) liquefied natural gas (LNG) precinct north of Broome, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

The two specialists are Dr. Martin Lockley, professor of geology at the University of Colorado in Denver, and Richard McCrea, curator of the Peace Region Paleontology Research Center in Canada.

Within two weeks, they will conduct fresh studies of the site to establish how important the prints are after a previous study found they were not of "museum quality".

WA Department of State Development Deputy Director Nicky Cusworth says she does not expect any discoveries that could derail the development.

"We hope the new survey improves our understanding of the dinosaur footprint issues and the best approach to managing, and minimizing the impact of the precinct on valuable fossil records," she said.

Australian Queensland paleontologist Steve Salisbury, who has carried out recent research at the James Price Point site, believes the new study will show the dinosaur prints and the gas hub can not co-exist.

"I am pretty sure that if they've seen what we've seen up in that area then the Department of State Development and the state government are in for a bit of a surprise," he told ABC Radio.