BEXHILL residents have made a dino-mite discovery on the seafront.
A set of dinosaur footprints, dating back to the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous period, was discovered on Bexhill beach.
UK Fossils Network and Bexhill Museum have confirmed the footprints belonged to a herbivorous creature known as the Iguanodon, which roamed the Earth between 162 and 99 million years ago.
The seaside town made headlines around the world after a storm in November 2000 uncovered the trail of dinosaur tracks.
Since that amazing discovery, hobbyists have flocked to the beach and have successfully collected fish, crocodile and turtle fossils, as well as dinosaur remains.
Bexhill was a starkly different landscape when the dinosaurs dominated the planet. The town had rivers, lakes and swamps and it is believed Bexhill had both wet and dry seasons.
The area was covered with vegetation including cycads, ferns and other trees in the same family.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Iguanodon fossils were found across Europe, North Africa and North America.
Weighing between four and five tonnes, the Iguanodon is known for its distinctive cone-shaped spiky thumbs.
It had five fingers, three toes on each leg and scientists believe it walked on either four legs or on its hind legs.
The Iguanodon, following the carnivorous Megalosaurus, was the second species to be scientifically classified as a dinosaur.
The Natural History Museum cited the existence of the Iguanodon first discovered by Dr Gideon Mantell, a palaeontologist, geologist and obstetrician, and his wife Mary Ann Mantell.
Fossils of the species, which stood about five metres tall and 11 metres long, were discovered in 1822 in Sussex.
The Lewes-born Dr Mantell, upon discovering fossilised teeth, sought the advice of experts including Georges Curvier, known as the father of palaeontology.
Curvier speculated the teeth could be from fish, but also noted the formation and composition of the teeth was different and thought it could be from a reptile.
Dr Mantell continued to study the teeth and travelled to the Hunterian Museum in London to compare the fossils to its collection of reptile teeth and jawbones.
Initially Dr Mantell had no leads until the assistant curator, Samuel Stuchbury, showed him the skeleton of an iguana which gave him some new ideas as to their origin.
The fossilised teeth of the iguana looked remarkably similar to the Iguanodon’s, and due to the size the dinosaur’s teeth, Dr Mantell believed the owner of the mystery teeth belonged to a much larger creature that could resemble an iguana. The name Iguanodon means “iguana tooth”.
Motivated by the discovery, Dr Mantell continued his search for more evidence of the Iguanodon.
Then in 1834, workmen at a limestone quarry near Maidstone in Kent found a slab of rock which had rib and pelvic fragments, limb bones, and parts of a tooth embedded in it.
The owner of the quarry, William Harding Bensted, contacted Dr Mantell to study the slab. Dr Mantell attributed them to the Iguanodon, and he believed the dinosaur had a horn, similar to some modern-day iguanas.
But this theory was scrapped in 1878 after a ground-breaking discovery of more Iguanodon fossils in Bernissart, Belgium, and the “horn” was actually its thumb.
Scientists believe the spiky thumbs were used for either defence against predators, or tearing leaves to consume.
