An operation to remove a 160-million-year-old dinosaur footprint from a Yorkshire beach has been successfully completed by divers of Scarborough SAC. The 66cm-long fossilized print, embedded in a 300kg sandstone boulder, was lifted from the beach at Burniston by the club's members.
The Jurassic-period fossil was first discovered by a local geological society at the end of the 2004. However, during a storm, it fell from the cliffs onto a rocky shore that is only accessible on foot or from the sea.
The geologist group, together with English Nature and Scarborough Council, called on the services of the diving club to help recover the footprint, so it could be displayed at the Rotunda Museum in Scarborough.
'Club members were immediately enthusiastic to help,' said Scarborough SAC member Bince Robinson. 'We made a plan to construct a raft, onto which the fossil could be lifted and then be towed behind the club boat back into Scarborough Harbour. We towed the raft to the headland and the rest of the team headed down to the beach wearing their drysuits to pull the raft ashore. Dinosaur Coast project officer, Will Watts, began preparing the fossil for transportation. With the tides against us this was a journey of about 200m across wet, seaweed-strewn rocks.'
The operation involved more than 20 volunteers from Scarborough SAC, North East Yorkshire Geology Trust, Scarborough Council geologists and engineering company Trans-core. Robinson said there had been a great deal of interest in the project and that it had raised the profile of the diving club within the local community.
