Mantellisaurus: Dinosaur footprints found on Isle of Wight beach
- Published
The footprints were uncovered during coastal flood checks by the Environment Agency
A set of ginormous dinosaur footprints have been found on the Isle of Wight.
The discovery was made by chance during excavation work on a beach on the east coast of the island.
The prints are believed to be 125 million years old and to have belonged to a three-toed dinosaur called a mantellisaurus.
They were herbivores which means plant eaters and they lived during the Early Cretaceous Period in what is now Western Europe.
What's happened?
A mantellisaurus skeleton is on display at the Natural History Museum
The dinosaur footprints were uncovered by engineers at Yaverland Beach.
They appeared while they were carrying out coastal flood checks along the seafront.
Experts believe the mantellisaurus mainly walked upright on its two back limbs.
Fully-grown, these dinosaur could be up to seven metres (23ft) long - almost twice the length of an average car.
The Isle of Wight is one of the UK's richest dinosaur fossil sites
Dr Martin Munt, curator of the Dinosaur Isle Museum in Sandown, said: "The Isle of Wight is the richest dinosaur location in Europe, but this is still a wonderful find.
"We cannot be totally sure about a print's identity, but the three-toed feet makes it likely a mantellisaurus was here, not just in other parts of the South Coast where they were more common - or that's what we thought until now."
The Isle of Wight is sometimes referred to as "Dinosaur Island" because of the number of dinosaur-related finds there.
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