2008

NG4968 : Dinosaur footprint on Staffin beach

taken 17 years ago, near to Stenscholl, Isle of Skye, Scotland

Dinosaur footprint on Staffin beach
Dinosaur footprint on Staffin beach
On the beach at An Corran are some remarkable footprints. They were left by a family of dinosaurs that walked across the sand here some 165 million years ago. To put that in context, the gabbro rocks of the Cuillin were formed about 60 million years ago, and they were carved by the glaciers of the last ice age on Skye just 11,000 years ago. These are very, very old footprints.
The dinosaurs that passed here were Ornithopods, herbivorous creatures who walked on two legs. There is a fair cluster of footprints on a bed of sandstone on the beach. The prints are covered by the sea at high tide, and are often covered by sand in the summer. The best time to see them is after a winter storm, when the sea has swept the sand away.
The coin in the picture is a 10p piece, placed to give an idea of scale.

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright John Allan and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Category: Rock Feature > Fossils
This photo is linked from: Galleries: · Tweeted from @geograph_bi in July 2015 Automatic Clusters: · Corran Beach [14] · Dinosaur Footprints [8] · Rock [6] Other Photos: · An Corran, Staffin ·
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NG4968, 96 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
John Allan   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Saturday, 29 March, 2008   (more nearby)
Submitted
Sunday, 30 March, 2008
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NG 491 686 [100m precision]
WGS84: 57:38.2380N 6:12.2453W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NG 491 686
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Image classification(about): Supplemental image
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