Residents in Pembrokeshire were baffled after waking up to find giant dinosaur footprints dotted along their local beach. A trail made up of 64 T. rex footprints, each a metre long, appeared along the golden sands of Traeth Llyfn, leaving beachgoers stunned.
A team of 10 sand artists worked with palaeontologists to design the prints, and spent more than four hours creating the 50-metre-long prehistoric trail. The installation, which brought the Pembrokeshire beach back to the Late Cretaceous era, was created to mark the launch of the Apple TV+ series Prehistoric Planet today (May 23rd), which is narrated by Sir David Attenborough and features music composed by Hans Zimmer.
Passer-by Anna Hatton, aged 72, said: “I saw these giant footprints from up on the cliff path and came down to take a look. It’s amazing how big they are up close.”
Sir David Attenborough said: “It’s an opportunity to see the world’s most famous dinosaurs like T. rex and Triceratops come to life, but also to really enter into their world and see the incredible diversity of life which existed at that time.”
Executive Producer, Mike Gunton, added: “We wanted to find a showstopping way to get people talking about the release of Prehistoric Planet – and what better way than bringing dinosaurs back to the present day.”
About the T. Rex
- Epic proportions – T. rex could reach 13 metres long and tip the scales at around 10 tonnes.
- Making a splash – They were competent swimmers. Strong hind legs would likely have propelled them through the water effectively, and fossil evidence backs this up. Using a CT scanner, scientists have found that many theropod bones had a hollow structure, which would have helped their massive bodies to float.
- Sensitive faces – In the new series it is revealed that T. rex had many nerve endings on its face, which would have played a significant role not only in communication, but also courtship.
- They had feathers when they were young – Palaeontologists believe T. rex youngsters probably had a thin coat of downy feathers, likely to have first evolved to keep them warm. An adult T. rex, however, would not have needed them.
- T. rex, the family man – It’s possible that T. rex fathers would have taken the leading care-giving role in raising their young, including safeguarding nests of eggs.
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