It is hoped that the dinosaur fossil, which is at a location that is being kept secret, can be saved before it is washed away by the sea.
A footprint that had been made by a large meat-eating dinosaur described as being a “real Jurassic giant” has been discovered on a beach in Yorkshire .
The fossilised print had been spotted by the archaeologist Marie Woods who was collecting shellfish at the time.
Experts believe that it was made by a dinosaur that had a possible body length of at least eight to nine metres, and matches the print of a Megalosaurus, which had lived between 175 and 164 million years ago.
It is hoped that the fossil, at a location which is being kept secret, can be saved before it is washed away by the sea.
This come after a scientist has discovered the 166 million-year-old fossil of a dinosaur while running along the beach of the small Scottish island of Eigg. Dr Elsa Panciroli was running by the shores on Eigg to meet up with her palaeontology research team when she made the thrilling dinosaur fossil discovery.
Ms Woods has said that she was shocked to stumble across the huge print. Now she is hoping that it will be possible to save the fossil before it is washed away.
“I was grabbing some shellfish for dinner. I didn’t collect much after seeing that,” she said.
“It’s in a fragile state and sits close to the water level, meaning it could be lost to the sea.
“John Oxley [former city archaeologist of York] came to take a series [of] photographs so that we could create a 3D model if collection isn’t possible.”
Following the discovery, at a location that is being kept secret, Ms Woods contacted specialists including the palaeontologist Dr Dean Lomax, who is the author of Dinosaurs of the British Isles.
Dr Lomax said that Ms Woods’s discovery turned out to be a rediscovery, as it had been partially spotted by a fossil collector named Rob Taylor back in November 2020.
Despite Mr Taylor having posted pictures of his find onto a Facebook group dedicated to fossils from Yorkshire, the fossil had not yet been fully exposed and nobody had realised the true importance of the find.
This comes after pub-goers will need to wrap up warm, with low temperatures forecast as outdoor hospitality, such as beer gardens, reopen in England. Snow, sleet and low, freezing temperatures forecast for large parts of the United Kingdom.
Dr Lomax, who grew up hunting for fossils on the Yorkshire coast and has written extensively on dinosaur finds, said: “This is the largest theropod footprint ever found in Yorkshire, made by a large meat-eating dinosaur.
“We know this because the shape and three-toed track, along with the impression of the claws, are absolutely spot-on for having been made by a large theropod that probably had a hip height of about 2.4 metres and possible body length approaching eight to nine metres – so a real Jurassic giant.
“We can never be certain of exactly what species made it, but the footprint type would match the likes of a dinosaur found in Britain and called Megalosaurus, which lived at roughly the same time this footprint was created, during the Middle Jurassic.”
He added: “Yorkshire’s coast is world renowned for its dinosaur tracks, primarily through research by Dr Mike Romano and Dr Martin Whyte, who spent around 20 years researching and discovering hundreds [to] thousands of tracks.”
