A 180-million-year-old footprint of one of the largest dinosaurs to roam the planet has been discovered on a beach in the region.

The 40cm-long print, put on display for the first time yesterday, belongs to a sauropod.

The sauropods, such as the Diplodocus, were some of the largest of all the dinosaurs. Their name means lizard footed.

They had very long necks, small heads with blunt teeth, a small brain, and long tails for counterbalancing their necks.

Standing up to 1.8m high at the hip and about the height of a double-decker bus at the head, sauropods roamed in herds during the middle Jurassic period.

The print was discovered by fisherman Christopher France in a slab of fallen rock at the foot of cliffs near Ravenscar on the North Yorkshire coast, in July.

Mr France has donated the specimen to the Whitby Museum, which has built a display case especially for the print, and will become the centre of its fossil exhibition.

Curator of geology at Whitby, Roger Osborne, said: "This is the finest fossil specimen the museum has acquired for many years. It is a wonderful addition to our collection and will be on permanent display.

"Dinosaurs roamed the Yorkshire coast in the middle Jurassic period, about 180 million years ago, leaving footprints in the sand and mud of the beaches and river estuaries and deltas.

"At that time, the area was a sort of mud swamp so the footprints would have been preserved in the mud and then would probably have been filled with sand.

"Unfortunately, the climate and the environment did not help preserve much in the way of dinosaur bones, so we have to rely on footprints to tell us about the animals which used to live here.

"This one happened to be in a big boulder that fell down the cliff.

"It is unusual because it is so big and usually we have to leave them on the beach where they are found and they are simply eroded away.

"But this is a fantastic addition to our collection, simply fantastic."

Published: 03/12/2004