A young girl has created a large discovery by discovering a dinosaur footprint on a Welsh beach. Lily Wilder was walking along a beach close to Barry in South Wales when she spotted the footprint, reports The Independent.
Scientists think that the 220 million-year-old footprint could support us greater recognize how dinosaurs walked.
“It was on a low rock, shoulder height for Lily, and she just spotted it and said, ‘look Daddy,'” Lily’s mother Sally Wilder, 41, told NBC News on Saturday. “When Richard came home and showed me the photograph I thought it looked amazing.
“Richard believed it was also very good to be accurate. I was place in touch with authorities who took it from there.”
Lily Wilder identified the dinosaur footprint at Bendricks Bay – a beach identified for its dinosaur footprints. But Lily’s discovery is extraordinary even for a beach identified for dinosaur footprints.
National Museum of Wales Palaeontology curator Cindy Howells described the obtain as “the most effective specimen ever identified on this beach.”
The footprint, just over 10 cm in length, is likely to have been made by a dinosaur that stood about 75cm tall and 2.5m long – although it is not possible to determine which dinosaur made the footprint 220 million years ago.
The fossil was extracted this week and taken to the National Museum Cardiff, where it will be preserved.
“Its spectacular preservation could support scientists establish more about the actual structure of their feet as the preservation is clear adequate to show person pads and even claw impressions,” National Museum Wales said in a statement.