AN AMERICAN tourist claims to have found the footprints of a giant meat-eating dinosaur on a Scottish beach.
Dave Patton, from Davisburg, Michigan, made the discovery during low tide at Staffin Beach on the Isle of Skye.
A photo of his discovery posted online show what appear to be the footprints of a three-toed creatured.
A woman’s hand is in the picture for scale, suggesting the foot is about 12 inches long.
Dave wrote: “Dinosaur prints on the beach at Skye!”
Some have been quick to share his wonder at the incredible “discovery”.
Others have taken a more lighted approach, suggesting that the “naughty” dinosaurs must have thought it was “cool” to step in cement that the council was laying.
Richard Long even suggested he knew the exact type of dinosaur that the print belonged to, writing: “Theropod print! 170 million years old. Now that’s what you call leaving a footprint when you visit somewhere.”
Whilst Ghislaine Duncan suggested it was a different species and commented: “My hubby was on a dig team. He said they are megalosaurus footprints from the early to mid jurassic from memory.”
Others were slightly more sceptical about the discovery of the prints left on the beach.
Charles Ferrie said: “Is that not a Haggis footprint?”
Peter Allison said: “These are fake aren’t they? When the council were laying the cement 170 million years ago, the naughty dinosaurs thought it would be cool to put their footprints in it instead of a 50p.”
Whilst Gordon Petrie said: “What’s really exciting is they are fresh!”
Liam Simmonds said that they had been left by “human sheep” and Terran Woolley told people to “be careful”.
In December last year, scientists from Edinburgh University discovered footprints made by large, plant-eating dinosaurs called sauropods in Skye.
The site was dubbed the ‘dinosaur disco’ by the researchers due to the mixture of shapes and sizes found, with some prints measuring up to 2.3ft (70cm) in diameter.
