A footprint about a meter long left in stone by a carnivorous dinosaur 166 million years ago has been discovered in the Yorkshire region of the UK.
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A huge creature is said to have been crouching or resting when it left this trail, the largest found in this area dubbed the ‘Dinosaur Coast’.
“I couldn’t believe what I was looking at,” archaeologist Marie Woods, who discovered, said in a statement. I had seen smaller footprints before, but never anything like this.”
Following this discovery, the piece of stone bearing the imprint was extracted from its rock to protect it and so that it could be studied further.
According to geologist John Hudson, who was the last to discover a footprint in this region in 2006, this track would have been left by a specimen similar to Megalosaurus.
“The type of footprint, combined with its age, suggests it was made by a ferocious Megalausora-type dinosaur,” he said. Its size would be from the ground to the hips and could reach between 2.5 and 3 meters.
James McKay/University of Manchester
Ms. Woods, Mr. Hudson and three other collaborators published their discovery in the periodical Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society.
When the conservation process is complete, the print will be displayed at the Rotunda Museum in Scarborough, UK.