Four-Year-Old Girl Discovers 220 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Footprint at a Beach in Wales

The creature probably stood about 29.5 inches tall, was about 8 feet long and walked on its two hind feet, paleontology curator said

Biggest Dinosaur
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File

A four-year-old girl has made a big discovery.

Walking along a beach in Wales with her father and pet dog, she spotted an extremely well-preserved dinosaur footprint that has excited paleontologists worldwide.

Lily Wilder made the discovery near Bendricks Bay in south Wales, U.K., finding an imprint thought to have been left 220 million years ago.

"It was on a low rock, shoulder height for Lily, and she just spotted it and said, 'look Daddy,'" her mother Sally Wilder, 41, told NBC News by telephone on Saturday.

"She is really excited but doesn't quite grasp how amazing it is," Sally, an engineer, said, adding that her husband took photos at the beach and later shared them with the family. It was Lily's grandmother who encouraged them to reach out to local experts and fossil enthusiasts for further investigation.

Although it is impossible to identify exactly which type of dinosaur left the 10-centimeter (3.9-inch) footprint, some facts are discernable, Cindy Howells, Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum of Wales paleontology curator, told NBC News.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

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