A recent Bristol University graduate has unearthed a massive dinosaur footprint on a UK beach, believed to be from an iguanodon and dating back approximately 127 million years. Joe Thompson, a 23-year-old paleontologist, stumbled upon the one-meter-long, three-toed imprint while fossil hunting on the Isle of Wight.
Employed as a fossil guide with Wight Coast Fossils, Joe credits recent storms for exposing the find by clearing shingle from Shepherd’s Chine beach. “I’d been walking for an hour or two without luck and was feeling a bit discouraged,” he said. “Then I spotted a toe in the clay. As I dug further, I realized it was a huge iguanodon footprint. It’s higher in the geological sequence, making it slightly younger than other prints here, and it came from a massive creature.”
The discovery coincides with the 200th anniversary of the iguanodon’s initial identification, Joe noted. These large herbivores grew up to nine or ten meters long and weighed as much as four-and-a-half tonnes. “Iguanodons are fascinating,” he said. “They roamed in groups of 20 to 30, walked on all fours but ran on two legs, and fed on smaller plants in their ecosystem.”
Joe, who recently founded South Coast Fossils and now leads fossil walks at Highcliffe near Christchurch on the Isle of Wight, was thrilled with the find. “Seeing such a well-preserved footprint here is incredible. I was over the moon!” He also highlighted the Isle of Wight’s status as one of Europe’s top spots for dinosaur remains and tracks.
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