Why Are They Called the "Last" UK Dinosaurs?
The discovery in Folkestone, Kent, along the tidal foreshore and coastal cliffs is the only known geological evidence of dinosaurs in the British Isles. Why Are They Called the "Last" UK Dinosaurs?
During the Early
Cretaceous period, around 110 million years ago, southern England was a
low-lying coastal area. Shortly after these footprints were made, shifting
tectonic plates and rising global sea levels completely submerged the landmass
that is now the United Kingdom.
Because the land
remained underwater for roughly 50 million years—well after the mass extinction event 66 million years ago—no land-dwelling dinosaur fossils or tracks exist in UK rock layers from this period onward.
Collector Steve
Friedrich and curator Philip Hadland first found the footprints in the
Folkestone Formation. Professor David Martill and a team of paleontologists at
the University of Portsmouth later confirmed the findings.

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