Footprints of early dinosaur discovered on Welsh beach
- Palaeontologists at the Natural History Museum in London believe the footprints – known as a trackway – were most likely left by a very early sauropod or a prosauropod
- Experts say the prints could have been made more than 200 million years ago, during the Triassic period
Footprints discovered on a south Wales beach could have been made more than 200 million years ago by an early relative of a dinosaur, experts believe.
Palaeontologists at the Natural History Museum in London believe the footprints – known as a trackway – were most likely left by a very early sauropod or a prosauropod.
They were discovered on a beach in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, in 2020 by amateur palaeontologist Kerry Rees, who reported her find to the Natural History Museum.
We believed the impressions we saw at Penarth were consistently spaced to suggest an animal walking
Dr Susannah Maidment and Professor Paul Barrett were initially sceptical of the report but after carrying out an investigation, they believe the find is from an early relative of a dinosaur, dating from the Triassic period.
Dr Maidment said: “We get a lot of inquiries from members of the public for things that could be trackways but many are geological features that can easily be mistaken for them.
“However, from the photographs, we thought they were a fairly good contender for something that could be tracks and that it would be worth taking a look.”
Prof Barrett said: “We believed the impressions we saw at Penarth were consistently spaced to suggest an animal walking.
“We also saw displacement rims where mud had been pushed up. These structures are characteristic of active movement through the soft ground.”