The Biggest To The Most Terrifying Dinosaurs That Roamed Derbyshire

Sunday, October 25, 2020

A Tyrannosaurus Rex once roamed Derbyshire (Image: PA)

No John Hammond copy-cats here please!

Terrifying, huge, the stuff of nightmares, dinosaurs once roamed across Derbyshire and these massive beasts have certainly left their mark on our imaginations.

This year experts at the University of Southampton discovered four bones they believe belonged to a species related to a Tyrannosaurus rex. Over at the University College of London a newly described fossil preserved in amber has revealed a 99-million-year-old creature described as a hummingbird-size dinosaur, National Geographic reports.

Closer to home, discoveries made in the East Midlands offer an insight into the reality of the dinosaurs and where they lived and died.

Before an extinction that saw three quarters of life on Earth destroyed, millions of dinosaurs made their way across the globe, migrating to new lands - passing through what is now Derbyshire.

There are over 700 species of dinosaurs, that have been formally identified and named.

Take a look at those most local to us:

Passing through

Evidence of dinosaurs from the Lower Cretaceous age have been found in Sussex (Image: Pikist)

Most UK dinosaur remains have been recovered from rocks dating back to the Middle Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

This means that these animals were roaming the country up to 174 million years ago.

In the East Midlands many fossils have been discovered in locations nearby, including Derby, Nottingham and Leicester.

This suggests that the area was once home to several different kinds of dinosaur.

Due to the migrating patterns known about dinosaurs - moving across vast areas for mating - these beasts would have crossed the boarders into Northamptonshire, even if they were just passing through.

The biggest ever to walk the earth

The Brachiosaurus, the biggest dinosaur who ever lived. (Image: PeakPx)

Sauropoda, Plateosaurus and Theropoda are among the types of dinosaur that would have roamed this part of the world.

The biggest dinosaur to ever walk the earth, the Brachiosaurus, was a kind of Sauropoda and would have been found around the East Midlands - as shown by remains found close to the town Northampton, just an hour away.

The 'lizard-footed' Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads and four thick legs - the Diplodocus is another well-known type of Sauropod.

The Plateosaurus seems to have been linked to Nottingham, meaning this dinosaur would have made its way through Chesterfield in its search for food and mates.

This creature had the typical body shape of a herbivorous dinosaur which walked on two legs - a small skull, a long and flexible neck, a stocky body, and a long, mobile tail. Its arms were very short, but extremely strong.

Just down the road

Tyrannosaurus Rex was a type of Theropod (Image: Wikimedia)

Next door in Leicestershire, evidence of Theropods have been found.

The most famous Theropod is the Tyrannosaurus rex. Renowned for their huge size, three-toed limbs and hollow bones, these beasts eventually evolved into birds during the Jurassic period.

Bulky herbivores, Iguanodon, and duck-billed Ornithopods would have been common sights across all of the UK at one time. Most commonly, the enormous herbivores Sauropods have been identified in many locations.

There might not be direct links to Northamptonshire, but with dinosaurs found in very close proximity and new discoveries being made every year, who knows what will be found in the future.

Source: www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/