A huge dinosaur footprint dating back 127 million years has been found on a UK beach after a rainstorm.
A 23-year-old fossil guide spotted the three-toed print on the Isle of Wight.
Joe Thompson says the one-meter long footprint revealed itself after storms stripped the beach of pebbles.
The recent Bristol University paleontology graduate was walking on Shepherd’s Chine beach, looking for any fossils or dinosaur bones.
“I had been walking for an hour or two and hadn’t found anything – so was a bit down in the dumps.
“But then I looked down and could see one of the toes in the clay. Thinking it could be a footprint, I uncovered it and discovered a pretty big footprint of an Iguanodon.
“It is high up in the sequence, which means it is a bit younger than other footprints on the island. It belonged to a really big animal.”
The news comes as this month marks the 200th anniversary of the first scientific description of Iguanodon in 1825, after a collection of the dinosaur’s teeth was discovered by geologist Dr. Gideon Mantell from large fossils found in Sussex, England, by him and his wife Mary Ann.
Iguanodons were large herbivores measuring up to ten meters long and weighing over four tons.
“Iguanodons are pretty cool and were quite common, but to see a footprint so well preserved in this area is great.
Iguanodons traveled in large groups of maybe 20 to 30, walked on all fours, but ran on two feet.
“They went around eating all the smaller plants around the ecosystem at the time,” Joe told news agency SWNS.com.
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Joe, who is a guide for Wight Coast Fossils, has recently launched South Coast Fossils, offering his fossil walks in another nearby region of Highcliffe, near Christchurch, saying:
“The Isle of Wight is one of the best places in Europe for finding dinosaur remains and footprints.”
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