'I thought it was from a dinosaur': 'Prehistoric' claw found in couple's front yard baffles experts
BUCKLEY, WALES: After making an unusual discovery in her front garden, a British woman has raised concerns that dinosaurs are walking around the United Kingdom. Laura Moorcroft, 36, a resident of Buckley, Wales, discovered what she believes to be the claw of a dinosaur and sought clarification from a Chester Zoo specialist and a nearby veterinarian.
She said, "I instantly thought it was from a dinosaur. My husband and I had just come back from a walk and he noticed it on the grass. It looks prehistoric to us – a scaly lizard-like claw. We're huge fans of Jurassic Park so instantly thought it was from a dinosaur, I mean it looks very lizard-like doesn't it?"
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'Velociraptor'
Moorcroft also provided an explanation as to why the mystery creature couldn't be seen on the CCTV in her yard, Daily Mail reports. “We have CCTV but it was a bit too far down the garden to pick anything up, so it remains a mystery." Moorcroft further added, “I like our guess of a velociraptor best – I love that people had the same thinking. I saw someone had thought it was a Gremlin! We didn’t think something like this would grab everyone’s attention.”
The post prompted conjecture online, leading some to hypothesize if it came from a bird or other poultry while others surmised it might be an alligator, crocodile, or tortoise. Even the neighborhood veterinarian and Chester Zoo appeared perplexed by the mystery. "One said it was like a pheasant and the other a turkey so we’re still none the wiser," she explained.
She still believes it came from a "dinosaur," but birds appear to be a more likely explanation. Arkhat Abzhanov, a biologist at Harvard, said, "The first birds were almost identical to the late embryo from velociraptors."
Dinosaur footprint on Yorkshire beach
A remarkable dinosaur footprint was found in 2021 on a beach in Yorkshire, but it was later discovered that the footprint was actually left by a megalosaurus that had paused for a break 166 million years earlier. In Burniston Bay, close to Scarborough, archaeologist Marie Woods was out shellfishing when she made the discovery. Two years later, the fossilized footprint is scheduled to go on exhibition at Scarborough's Rotunda Museum, which is quite appropriate considering it is the largest bipedal (two-legged) dinosaur footprint ever discovered in Yorkshire.
