Tracks discovered on a beach in Wales might actually belong to dinosaurs, according to scientists.
The impressions, found near the shoreline of a beach in Penarth in 2020 by a member of the public, measured 1.6 feet long, and scientists say they were formed in the Triassic period some 200 million years ago.
The findings were part of a study published by Geological Magazine last week.
“We think the tracks are an example of Eosauropus, which is not the name of a particular dinosaur species but for shape of a type of track thought to have been made by a very early sauropod or a prosauropod,” Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum in London said in a press release. “We know these kinds of dinosaur were living in Britain at the time, as bones of the sauropod Camelotia have been found in Somerset in rocks dated to the same age.”
Discovered in an area measuring around 164 feet, the sheer number of prints seem to indicate that the area was a “trample ground” for dinosaurs.
“There are hints of trackways being made by individual animals, but because there are so many prints of slightly different sizes, we believe there is more than one trackmaker involved,” Barrett said. “These types of tracks are not particularly common worldwide, so we believe this is an interesting addition to our knowledge of Triassic life in the UK. Our record of Triassic dinosaurs in this country is fairly small, so anything we can find from the period adds to our picture of what was going on at that time.”
As for the specific dinosaur that made the tracks, scientists say they are similar to those left by the Camelotia. Fossils of this particular breed have been found in southwest England and date back to a similar time period.
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