As enormous three-toed, meat-eating dinosaurs roamed a shallow swamp environment around what is now Swanage, preying upon large plant-eating sauropod dinosaurs, around 140 million years ago, they left traces of their existence. These dinosaur footprints were left by members of the Megalosauridae family (likely Megalosaur) during a period known as the Lower Cretaceous.
Ambassador Kieran Satchell gives us background information on them in the first of a run of videos that Kieran will be making for us over the coming months. In the Dinosaurs in Dorset video he celebrates one of the first dinosaurs ever discovered – Megalosaurus!
Find out more on our Fossils of the Jurassic Coast page
A fantastic display of Jurassic Coast fossils, including these trace fossils, can be found at Dorset Museum. Dorset Museum in Dorchester has recently reopened and can be visited from 9am-4.30pm Monday-Saturday and between 10am and 4pm on Sundays.
A replica Megalosaur jaw bone alongside a tub of Purbeck Ice Cream’s Dig-A-Saurus, which is inspired by Megalosaurus.
