Vandals have damaged a 115-million-year-old dinosaur footprint imprinted in rock near the southern Australian city of Melbourne, local media reported Wednesday.
Park rangers discovered someone had chipped the edge of the 30-centimeter high footprint with a hammer at Bunurong Marine Park at Inverloch, 145 kilometers south-east of Melbourne, which is one of the few Ice Age dinosaur sites in the world.
"The rock there is reasonably hard so it looks like it's been hit with a hammer and pieces of the rock around the edge of the footprint have been broken away," park ranger Brian Martin told national broadcaster ABC.
"For someone to damage it intentionally, you'd have to have a rough idea of where it is because seaweed grows on the rock platform and it looks like a normal rock until you look closely and see the outline of the footprint."
The footprint, believed to be from a meat-eating megalosaurus that stood seven meters tall on two legs, was discovered in 2006.
Parks Victoria said the footprint was significant as it represented a moment frozen in time when a meat-eating dinosaur stood on that spot.
This differs from the recovery of bones from fossil layers in the area that have been deposited there by ancient fast-flowing rivers.
"It is sad to think a person or persons who knew the location of the footprint would deliberately damage an important local icon that is recognized as being of international scientific significance," said Parks Victoria ranger Brian Martin.
Scientists made a silicon rubber mold of the print and decided to leave the print where it was so park visitors could see where it had been for millions of years.
"The thrill of seeing a real dinosaur footprint has been diminished with the callous act of vandalism," Mike Cleeland from the Bunurong Environment Centre said in a statement.
Broken pieces have been retrieved and Cleeland said he hopes the footprint can be restored by technicians at Museum Victoria. Rangers are investigating, in an effort to find the vandals.
