The discovery dates back to the late Triassic period, with dinosaur bones being previously discovered nearby,
A Dinosaur discovery by a 10-year-old in the Vale of Glamorgan is set to feature in "The Dinohunters" on BBC One. The episode is part of the latest series of Our Lives, a documentary strand celebrating stories from across the UK.
Whilst out walking on the beach during the summer holidays, 10-year-old Tegan and her mother Claire spotted five giant footprints in the rocks that they believed might belong to a dinosaur
The exciting discovery led them to make contact with Cindy Howells, the go-to person for the local fossil-finding community, who looks after the growing collection of dinosaur fossils at the National Museum of Wales.
She meets them at the site of their find on the Vale of Glamorgan coastline. Upon initial investigation and measurements of the footprints, Tegan and Claire’s instincts appear to be correct. A lengthy process will now need to take place in order to verify the footprints’ legitimacy, but Cindy is pretty convinced this is a new find for Wales.
Cindy speaks of the importance of amateur enthusiasts: “Geology is the ultimate activity for anybody of any age. You can find minerals, you can find rocks, you can even find dinosaur footprints. In museums, we haven’t got the time to go out and do that exploration ourselves, so we rely on people like Tegan to do this sort of work. We can’t do our job without it.”
The rocks along the Vale of Glamorgan coastline date back to the late Triassic period and dinosaur bones have been found previously nearby.
In 2014, on the very same beach as Tegan’s find, the discovery of a 200-million-year-old dinosaur fossil – christened Dracoraptor - put Wales on the map as a destination of choice for fossil hunters. Since then, the fossil has been a star attraction at the National Museum of Wales. But now, the opportunity has arisen for further research into the fossil via special high-tech scanning in Manchester, which leads to new images of previously unseen bone.
Our Lives: The Dinohunters can be seen on BBC One Wales at 7.30pm on Friday 13th September - it will also be available for catch-up on BBC iPlayer.
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