Sacred fossils

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Date
In response to the theft of dinosaur footprints from Australia, I was at a
conference a few years ago where someone (I think John Long) gave a talk on
dinosaur footprints in northwestern Australia. He mentioned a local
aboriginal legend whereby the large three-toed tracks were considered to be
those of a giant emu walking out to sea. The tracks head out to sea and
last occur on offshore rock platforms that are reached by wading out at low
tide. The story was embellished by the loss of feathers from the bird (seed
fern fronds in nearby sediments). This is a neat and very sensible
reconstruction of fossil data and it is easy to see how such a legend could
arise and continue through time, since to my eyes at least the evidence is
much more compelling than for many other legends. Maybe someone else has a
more accurate and detailed version of this story, I am going on a very
imperfect recollection. I guess these fossils are considered sacred for
this reason.

Bob Hill

Professor Robert S. Hill
Head, Department of Plant Science
University of Tasmania
GPO Box 252-55
Hobart, Tasmania 7001

phone 03 62262601 (international 61 3 62262601)
fax 03 62262698 (international 61 3 62262698)
email: Bob.Hill@plant.utas.edu.au
web page:  http://www.utas.edu.au/docs/plant_science/P.S._Homepage.html