Schoolgirl, ten, stuns experts after unearthing dinosaur footprints that had laid undiscovered for 200 million years

A 10-year-old schoolgirl stunned experts when she unearthed dinosaur footprints while playing on a beach during a summer holiday walk.

The youngster, named only as Tegan believed the footprints could date back to pre-historic times – and her mum Claire contacted palaeontologists to find out.

Museum experts believe the five footprints, found near Penarth, South Wales, are more than 200 million years old and could belong to a dinosaur called the camoltia – part of the sauropodomorpha sub order.

Tegan, of Pontardawe, near Swansea, said: ‘It was so cool and exciting. 

We were just out looking to see what we could find, we didn’t think we’d find anything.

‘We found these were big holes that looked like dinosaur footprints, so mum took some pictures, emailed the museum and it was from a long-necked dinosaur.’

The stretch of coastline is a favourite of fossil hunters and close to where four-year-old Lily Wilder found another perfectly preserved footprint in 2021.

Palaeontologist Cindy Howells, of National Museum Wales, inspected the marks left in the rock and said she was ‘fairly certain they are genuine dinosaur prints’.

Cindy told BBC programme The Dinohunters: ‘We’ve got five footprints and we’re talking about half-to-three-quarters of a metre between each one.

‘These footprints are so big, it would have to be a type of dinosaur called a sauropodomorpha.

‘If they were random holes, we’d be wary but because we have a left foot, a right foot and then a left and another right… there’s a consistent distance between them.

‘It’s quite a significant find – the buzz you get when someone contacts us with a definite dinosaur find, it’s amazing.’

She added: ‘We think these prints were made by a reasonably large, herbivorous dinosaur.

‘While we haven’t any bones here, bones of similar dinosaurs were found on the other side of the Bristol Channel.

‘A camelotia would have stood about 3m tall, 4-5m long and is an early sauropodomorph with a relatively long neck, long tail and walked on two legs but could walk on all four when grazing for food.’

Tegan’s mum Claire added: ‘It’s hard to comprehend you’re walking on the same beach that hundreds of millions of years ago some massive prehistoric animal was here,’ she said.

‘You can spent a lifetime looking for dinosaur treasures so for it to happen for Tegan at this age is great.’