MORE than 85 dinosaur footprints measuring as much as half a metre across have been found in the UK.
The fossils are so well-preserved that fine detail of skin, scales and claws can be identified. The prints are though to be from at least seven different species including the the Iguanodon and Ankylosaurus and are the largest found in the UK from the Cretaceous period. Cretaceous is the geologic period that spans 79 million years from the end of the Jurassic age and which ended with the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.
University of Cambridge researchers uncovered the prints near Hastings in East Sussex after recent storms caused coastal erosion and the collapse of sandstone and mudstone cliffs.
The scientists said these type of footprints can only be preserved in ground “sticky” enough so it leaves a mark, but not so wet that it gets washed away.
Anthony Shillito, a PhD student in Cambridge’s department of earth sciences, said: “As well as the large abundance and diversity of these prints, we also see absolutely incredible detail.
“You can clearly see the texture of the skin and scales, as well as four-toed claw marks, which are extremely rare.
“You can get some idea about which dinosaurs made them from the shape of the footprints.
“When you also look at footprints from other locations you can start to piece together which species were the key players.
The footprints date between 145 and 100m years ago and include prints from including the herbivores Iguanodon – a 2.7 m in height dinosaur – and Ankylosaurus which was between six and metres long.
Shillito, added that it is ”incredibly rare” to find fossils of dinosaurs of this type.
He said: “Usually you only get small pieces, which don’t tell you a lot about how that dinosaur may have lived.
“A collection of footprints like this helps you fill in some of the gaps and infer things about which dinosaurs were living in the same place at the same time.”
According to the university, over the past 160 years there have been reports of fossilised dinosaur footprints along the Sussex coast.
These include the first known Iguanodon in 1825, and the first confirmed example of fossilised dinosaur brain tissue in 2016.
They also claim the area around Hastings is one of the richest in the UK for dinosaur fossils and it is likely there are many more hidden within the East Sussex cliffs.
