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Discovery and recovery of a large theropod dinosaur footprint from the Cleveland Basin, North Yorkshire, UK
Author(s) -
Hudson J.G.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
geology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.188
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1365-2451
pISSN - 0266-6979
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2451.2009.00717.x
Subject(s) - footprint , trace fossil , geology , archaeology , structural basin , paleontology , trace (psycholinguistics) , geography , philosophy , linguistics
In December of 2004 a dinosaur footprint was discovered near Scarborough on the North Yorkshire coast of northern England. Arguably, it was the largest and best‐preserved theropod print yet discovered on this coast, and indicated for the first time that large carnivores were present in the area around 165 million years ago. Many trace fossils are enigmatic ghosts of the animal that formed them, but footprints are so much more tangible; a footprint preserved from Jurassic time represents an individual animal, walking in this place at this time. In this article I provide the background to the discovery and collection of this trace fossil, which has enabled this footprint in time to be preserved for future study.