Rare dinosaur footprints go up for sale at Sussex auction

The footprints of the long extinct creatures – preserved in stone – are among lots being featured at an auction in Billingshurst later this month.

News of the sale comes just days after a Sussex mum discovered a set of eight dinosaur footprints on a beach in Bexhill.

Vicky Ballinger said she thought the footprints were iguanodon among others.

The footprints up for sale at Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst on March 26 also include iguanodon prints.

An auctioneers’ spokesperson said: “Although not fossils in the general sense, they have a magic and intrigue of their own as they reveal the actual activity of prehistoric animals.

"They are known as ‘trace’ fossils due to the fact that they are not parts of the animal itself – bones etc – preserved in stone.”

The Iguanodon footprints are estimated to sell from between £500 - £800. Also on sale is another which experts say looks as if it was left by the rare Polacanthus.

There is also a footprint that seems to have been left by a specimen of a Baryonix. The spokesperson added: “The first fossil of it was found in Surrey and although they are found in Horsham Stone, footprints are very rare.” It is estimated it will sell for between £400 - £600.

In 2018, more than 85 footprints from the Cretaceous period, made up of around seven different species and including fine detail of skin and scales, were uncovered by cliffs between Hastings and Fairlight.

The Cretaceous is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago.