Footprints of the last dinosaur to walk on British soil

A new report announced that the footprints of at least six different dinosaurs have been found in Kent.

The curator of the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery and scientists at the University of Portsmouth discovered dinosaur footprints, which are the last records of dinosaurs in the UK

These footprints were found on the cliffs and the former coast of Foxton, Kent, where storms affect the cliffs and coastal waters, and new fossils are constantly being discovered

Professor of Paleontology David Martyr said: "This is the first time that dinosaur footprints have been found in the formation called the'Foxton Formation'.

"They were walking near the White Cliffs of Dover-next time you see those spectacular cliffs on a ferry, just imagine!"

Footprint fossils are formed by deposits filling the imprints left by the dinosaur's feet reaching the ground, and then the ground preserves it

These footprints come from a variety of dinosaurs, which indicates that there was a relatively high diversity of dinosaurs in southern England at the end of the early Cretaceous period 110 million years ago

They are believed to come from ankylosaurus, an armored dinosaur with a rough appearance, like a living tank; theropod, three-toed carnivorous dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus; ornithopod dinosaurs, a herbivorous "bird buttocks" "Dinosaurs, because their pelvic structure is a bit similar to birds

Philip Hardland, the collection and participating curator of the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, is the first author of this paper

"This is inconsistent with most geologists' views on the rocks here, but I went to look for more footprints, and as the tide showed more erosion, I found better footprints

Most discoveries are isolated footprints, but one discovery contains six footprints-forming a "footprint", that is, more than one continuous footprint of the same animal

The size of this footprint is similar to that of an elephant.

The largest footprint found so far-80 cm wide and 65 cm long-is believed to belong to a dinosaur resembling an Iguanodon

Professor Matil said: "It is fascinating to find so many species in one place

During the Late Cretaceous period, this part of Kent, and most of the United Kingdom were located under shallow seas, but this study also clearly shows that the Folkestone formation is an intertidal zone

Hardland said: "In addition to discovering that dinosaurs would go to the beach like their modern relatives, we also found new evidence that could change the interpretation of the stratum and geology of the Foxton Formation

"This just shows that the previously published geological conditions of an area are not always correct, and new insights can be drawn

This paper was published in the Journal of the Association of Geologists, and some of its footprints are currently on display at the Foxton Museum
.

Philip T.
Hadland, Steve Friedrich, Abdelouahed Lagnaoui, David M.
Martill.
The youngest dinosaur footprints from England and their palaeoenvironmental implications.
Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 2021; DOI: 10.
1016/j.
pgeola.
2021.
04.
005

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