In her front garden, a British woman made an uncommon discovery that has caused concerns about the presence of dinosaurs in the UK.
After stumbling upon what she believes to be a prehistoric creature's claw, Laura Moorcroft, 36, residing in Buckley, Wales, contacted Chester Zoo experts and a nearby veterinarian seeking clarification.
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 are huge fans of Jurassic Park so instantly thought it was from a dinosaur, I mean it looks very lizard-like doesn't it?"
Moorcroft provided an explanation as to why the unidentified creature couldn't be captured on her garden's CCTV.
She said: "One said it was like a pheasant and the other a turkey so we're still none the wiser."
"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."
When Moorcroft shared her discovery online, it triggered speculation, with some speculating that the claw belonged to a bird or poultry, whereas others guessed it might be similar to that of an alligator, crocodile, or tortoise.
The unidentified creature had even left experts at Chester Zoo and a nearby veterinarian puzzled.
"One said it was like a pheasant and the other a turkey so we're still none the wiser," she explained.
Despite her conviction that the claw belonged to a dinosaur, a biologist from Harvard University shattered her assumption.
Arkhat Abzhanov said: "The first birds were almost identical to the late embryo from velociraptors."
The biologist clarified that genuine velociraptors were similarly sized to turkeys and had feathers.
Nonetheless, the mystery remains unresolved.
In 2021, an astonishing dinosaur footprint was unearthed on a Yorkshire beach. However, it was established that the print was left 166 million years ago by a megalosaurus that had stopped to rest.
While gathering shellfish on Burniston Bay beach, located near Scarborough, archaeologist Marie Woods stumbled upon something beyond her evening meal.
After two years, the fossilized footprint is now scheduled for exhibition at the Rotunda Museum in Scarborough. It's a fitting location since it's the most extensive footprint of a bipedal dinosaur ever discovered in Yorkshire.
Experts estimate that the dinosaur, based on the footprint's size, was a massive carnivorous creature that could have measured up to 30 feet in length.
Although local collector Rob Taylor had already caught a glimpse of the fossilized footprint five months earlier than Marie, it was her complete discovery of it that held immense significance.
