Schoolgirl discovers dinosaur footprints on beach walk

A schoolgirl’s beach walk with her mother took an interesting turn when she discovered dinosaur footprints preserved in a stone for 200 million years.

Tegan, the 10-year-old girl, had set off from her home in Pontardawe with her mother Claire to the south Wales coast in search of fossils, a UK media outlet reported.

They ended up at a spot of the coast commonly known as a prehistoric hotspot where Tegan found as many as five dinosaur footprints a metre apart from each other.

“We were just out looking to see what we could find, we didn’t think we’d find anything. We found these were big holes that looked like dinosaur footprints, so mum took some pictures, emailed the museum and it was from a long-necked dinosaur,” Tegan said.

While Tegan thought the footprints could date back to pre-historic times, her mother contacted palaeontologists to find out.

They were left stunned when experts told them that the five footprints the schoolgirl found were more than 200 million years old.

While scientists are yet to verify the exact species of the dinosaur, they are believed to have been left by a camelotia, a huge herbivore from the late triassic period.

Cindy Howells, a paleontology curator at the National Museum Wales, said that the footprints are big enough to suggest that the species would be a type of dinosaur called a sauropodomorpha.

“If they were random holes, we’d be wary but because we have a left foot, a right foot and then a left and another right… there’s a consistent distance between them. It’s quite a significant find – the buzz you get when someone contacts us with a definite dinosaur find, it’s amazing,” she added.

Reacting to her daughter’s discovery, Claire found it hard to comprehend that they walked on the same beach where millions of years ago some massive prehistoric animal used to stroll.

“You can spend a lifetime looking for dinosaur treasures so for it to happen for Tegan at this age is great,” she added.