Dinosaur footprint dating back 135 million years stolen

A 135 million-year-old dinosaur footprint has been stolen from a working quarry

Last Updated: 3:49PM GMT 13 Mar 2009

The 18-inch print was chiselled out of a limestone block and taken from Coombefield Quarry along the Jurassic Coast in Portland, Dorset, sometime over the last six months.

About 25 slabs bearing the footprints of dinosaurs such as the two-legged herbivore Iguanadon, the four-legged herbivore Sauropod and the two-legged carnivore Megalosaur have now been moved to a safe place by The Portland Gas Trust.

The Trust was set up by Portland Gas Storage Limited which is behind plans to build a gas storage facility on Portland with 14 underground storage caverns holding one per cent of the UK's annual demand for natural gas.

It plans to put the footprints on display at a new £1.5 million visitor centre.

Trust manager Rachel Barton said: "Everyone thinks it's a fantastic project, allowing future generations to share the delight of walking with the dinosaurs.

"Aside from the risk of vandalism or theft by some elements of the public, their previous setting was a busy working site exposing the treasured items to unnecessary risk.

"Safeguarding these historic footprints supports the Trust's key aims to benefit projects connected with Portland. We're thrilled to keep them here."

The footprints were all unearthed by quarrying at the Stone Firms Ltd site in 2002.

The Jurassic Coast often attracts fossil hunters as its rocks record 185 million years of the earth's history.

The 95-mile coastline in Dorset and East Devon is England's first natural World Heritage Site and is known as The Jurassic Coast.

World Heritage status was achieved because of the site's unique insight into the earth sciences as it clearly depicts a geological walk through time spanning the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4986312/Dinosaur-footprint-dating-back-135-million-years-stolen.html