The largest dinosaur print in the region has been discovered along the Yorkshire Coast. It may have been left by a predator stopping for a rest 166 million years ago, according to researchers.
Archaeologist, Marie Woods took to Twitter to announce her find back in spring 2021, and that she had found the largest footprint whilst out looking and collecting shellfish.
She took to Twitter at the time posting: “I had originally gone to collect shellfish for dinner, but got completely distracted by this beast!!!”
Scientists say that the metre-long footprint fossil which was found in Burniston Bay, near Scarbrough was the largest ever discovered in the area.
The team who studied it concluded it was made by a giant carnivore like a Megalosaurus and is set to go on display at the town’s Rotunda Museum, the BBC reported.
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Findings from a study have been published on Tuesday in the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society. Woods has said in a statement that: “I couldn’t believe what I was looking at, I had to do a double take. I have seen a few smaller prints when out with friends, but nothing like this. I can no longer say that ‘archaeologists don’t do dinosaurs.”
What’s reached out to palaeontologist Dr. Dean Lomax, an honorary visiting scientist at the University of Manchester, to get his thoughts on what she found at Burniston Bay, about 3 miles north of Scarborough. And it had been just the day before, Lomax had shared an image of a dinosaur footprint found in the same area in 2006.
It’s the largest theropod, a group which includes the most famous dinosaur, the Tyrannosaurus Rex – found to date in Yorkshire.
The carnivorous dinosaur, one of the largest predators of its time, had a large skull armed with sharp, serrated teeth, and its body reached 8 to 9 meters, which s around 26.2 to 29.5 feet in length.
Dr Dean Lomax said the “wonderful” discovery had shed new light on the behaviour of the giants that once roamed the area.
He added: “Features of the footprint may even suggest that this large predator was squatting down before standing up. It’s fun to think this dinosaur might well have been strolling along a muddy coastal plain one lazy Sunday afternoon in the Jurassic.”
“Now that the specimen has been studied, plans are in motion for it to go on public display, to spark the imagination of the next generation of fossil hunters,” Dr Lomax said.
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