Family make incredible dinosaur footprint discovery while walking on beach

13 March 2024 , 13:40

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The prints on the beach in Bexhill, East Sussex (Image: Vicky Ballinger/SWNS)

A family walking on a beach discovered a set of eight dinosaur footprints.

Vicky Ballinger, 39, was on a sunset stroll with her children when they made the amazing discovery. Stunned Vicky and two of her kids, Lyla and Immy, were 'amazed' to have found a total of eight dinosaur footprints in Bexhill, East Sussex. Vicky said the tracks had been exposed due to high tides and heavy rains - which had meant the rocks underneath the sand had suddenly become visible.

She took footage of the prints and uploaded the video to YouTube. Vicky said she believes the footprints could have belonged to an iguanodon. She said: "It's actually quite beautiful to see these amazing dinosaur footprints that my children and I found when we came on a walk. The kids loved that they could see the track of a dinosaur and walk where it walked - it was very exciting.

"The tide and the heavy rains have washed a lot of sand away recently. I grew up in Bexhill and I've never seen these ones before. I believe they are iguanodon footprints - they aren't T-rex tracks as they were not about in England, I was playing with my kids." Vicky went to the local Bexhill Museum with the discovery, who are going to investigate further this week.

Vicky Ballinger was on a stroll with her children when they made the discovery (Vicky Ballinger/SWNS)

The foreshore area from Bexhill to Fairlight is well-known for the track casts and prints of dinosaurs. In 2018, more than 85 footprints from the Cretaceous period made up of at least seven different species and including fine detail of skin and scales were uncovered by cliffs between Hastings and Fairlight. A fossil discovered on Bexhill beach almost 20 years ago was confirmed in 2016 as a 'pickled' dinosaur brain.

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The rocks Bexhill is situated on are around 140 million years old and contain the remains of the dinosaurs that used to roam its then freshwater surroundings. Over the years the fossils of several dinosaur species have been found including Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, Baryonyx, Polacanthus and the tooth of a Velociraptor-type animal, many of which are on display at Bexhill Museum.

The Cretaceous is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago.

Richard Gladstone