Scientists have identified Britain's oldest sauropod dinosaur, which roamed the Earth about 176 million years ago in the Middle Jurassic Period, from a fossilised bone discovered on the North Yorkshire coast.
The vertebra (backbone) originates from a group of dinosaurs that includes the largest land animals to have ever walked on Earth.
This new sauropod dinosaur, from the Middle Jurassic Period at about 176 million years old, was found near Whitby, Yorkshire, after it fell out of a cliff face.
The finding represents the earliest skeletal record of this type of dinosaur from the UK and adds to existing evidence from Yorkshire dinosaur tracks that this part of the country was once Britain's very own 'Jurassic World'.
Sauropods (often referred to as 'brontosaurs') include some of the largest plant-eating dinosaurs to have roamed the Earth and were a successful group for nearly 150 million years.
They possessed distinctive long necks and tails, small heads, a large body and walked on all fours. Some species such as the Argentinosaurus grew up to 35 metres long and possibly weighed as much as 80 tonnes.
The fragmentary nature of the new find from Yorkshire means it is not possible to generate a new species of dinosaur.
However, this fossil clearly belongs to this distinctive group of titanic sized animals, the sauropods.
This dinosaur fossil is an extremely rare find, given the Middle Jurassic rocks of the world are only exposed in a few areas, such as China and Argentina where similar-aged dinosaur fossils originate.
Professor Phil Manning and his team from The University of Manchester used X-Ray Tomography to study the fossil bone, which is now held in the collections at the Yorkshire Museum in UK.
"Many scientists have worked on the amazing dinosaur tracks from the Middle Jurassic rocks of Yorkshire. It was a splendid surprise to come face-to-face with a fossil vertebra from the Jurassic rocks of Yorkshire that was clearly from a sauropod dinosaur," said Manning.
"This fossil offers the earliest 'body fossil' evidence for this important group of dinosaurs in the United Kingdom, but it is impossible to define a new species based upon this single bone," Manning said.
Until more bones are discovered the team has simply nicknamed Britain's oldest sauropod, 'Alan', after the finder of this dinosaur (Alan Gurr).
The finding was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
