Dinosaur footprints seized in poaching case given to college

AMHERST, Mass. – A slab of rock that bears dinosaur footprints is being donated to Amherst College by authorities who seized it as part of a poaching case.

Massachusetts Environmental Police are turning the fossil trackway over to the school’s museum of natural history on Thursday. It’s believed to bear the tracks of Eubrontes giganteous, a large dinosaur that lived about 190 million years ago.

The specimen was taken as evidence in a 2004 case involving poaching in the rich fossil beds of western Massachusetts. The case led to passage of a law protecting fossils and artifacts on public land.

After finishing their investigation, police offered it to Amherst’s natural history museum in February. The museum, which says it has the world’s largest collection of fossil dinosaur tracks, was glad to take it.