Discovery of beach visitor stirs science

Created: 01/02/2022Updated: 01/02/2022, 2:06 pm

The traces discovered by an amateur researcher in Wales are around 200 million years old.

© Peter Falkingham / dpa

A hobby researcher has made an impressive find on a beach - scientists respond enthusiastically.

Penarth - A 50-meter trail of an early relative of the dinosaurs on a Welsh beach has excited British scientists.

The prints suggested that large, long-necked dinosaurs lived in the area more than 200 million years ago, the Natural History Museum in London tweeted on Friday.

Hobby researcher discovers dinosaur tracks on Welsh beach - 200 million years old

Possibly they were representatives of the Sauropodomorpha.

The well-known genus Diplodocus also belongs to this group.

Hobby researcher Kerry Rees discovered the tracks in 2020 on Penarth Beach near Cardiff, it said.

She was skeptical at first, said museum expert Susannah Maidment.

But after detailed investigations, she and her colleague Paul Barrett are of the opinion that there are traces from the Triassic period, which is around 200 to 250 million years ago.

“A number of footprints on a public beach indicate the presence of a large, long-necked dinosaur in Wales over 200 million years ago.

The footprints in Penarth may have been left by sauropodomorphs, a group that includes the iconic Diplodocus, ”wrote the National History Museum London on Friday.

Dinosaur tracks discovered in Wales - British researchers excited

The prints indicated a walking animal, Barrett said.

There are also places where mud has been pushed up.

“These structures are characteristic of active movement in soft ground.” The impressions are documented with the help of 3D images.

The scientists have published their findings in the specialist journal "Geological Magazine".

Researchers also made a curious find in Peru last year.