It’s a footprint that’s about 166 million years old and it’s impressive. It was discovered in April 2021 by an archaeologist looking for shells on an English beach in the Cleveland Basin in the Middle Jurassic Scalby Formation. At nearly a meter long, it would belong to a theropod, a carnivorous dinosaur, probably gigantic! This one could possibly belong to the genus Megalosaurus, the very first genus of dinosaurs to be described nearly 200 years ago!
With “a height at the basin of 2.5 to 3 metres”, according to John Hudson, a geologist and first author of the article published in the journal Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society, this predator was a giant, invading the ground, making Yorkshire the largest trace of theropods ever found there. If attributing fossilized footprints to a specific species or biological genus is almost impossible, they provide us with much information about the true behavior of the animals that left them.
By observing this footprint, the researchers were able to determine that the large predator was resting or crouching while other dinosaurs whose tracks have been found in Yorkshire walked, ran and even swam! Ultimately, ichnofossils are precious testimonies that bestow upon us the most faithful moments of life of extinct species.