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Easy does it... as footprint of a Yorkshire dinosaur is preserved
Julie Hemmings LARGE dinosaurs are not thought to have been light on their feet.
And a print left by one of the creatures made similarly slow progress when geologists moved it from a North Yorkshire beach.
A team of volunteers, including members of Scarborough Sub-Aqua Club, spent most of Saturday retrieving a sandstone boulder, weighing about a third of a ton, from the beach at Burniston.
The footprint was exposed after the boulder fell from the cliff through erosion by sea or weather and was spotted by John Hudson, a geologist and member of the sub-aqua club.
The footprint – about 2ft long – is thought to have been made by a megalosaurus in the Middle Jurassic Period, between 165 million and 170 million years ago, when what is now Yorkshire was a swampy river delta.
Various methods of removal, including lifting the boulder by helicopter, were considered before Chris Robinson, another sub-aqua club member who works for Malton engineers Transcore, built a special cradle-cum-raft onto which the rock was hauled.
After being packed with bubble wrap, the raft was floated and slowly towed by boat round to Scarborough harbour, before the rock was lifted by crane onto a lorry to take it Scarborough's museum stores.
Mr Hudson is a member of the North East Yorkshire Geology Trust. Director of the trust Mike Windle said the footprint's recovery had been "a real community effort".
He said: "It's a piece of local earth heritage and it's really important. There is a great deal to be proud of in the geology of this coast, which is of global importance."
It is hoped the footprint will go on show at the Rotunda Museum in the resort, built to the design of William Smith, who is regarded as the father of British geology.
The museum will hear next month if it has secured Lottery cash towards a 3m makeover of the listed building – which houses Smith's extensive collection of specimens – to turn it into a gateway to Yorkshire's Jurassic Coast. For more information about the work of the trust, visit its website at www.neyorksgeologytrust.com
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to 1 C
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