Isle of Wight Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs on the Isle of Wight
Did you know that the Isle of Wight is one of the richest locations for dinosaur finds in the whole of Europe? A combination of location and geology has made it the perfect place to find fossils!
The Isle of Wight has a warmer than average climate today, but 120 million years ago the Island was a subtropical paradise teeming with land and marine life. Situated close to the equator, sandwiched between what we know today as Cornwall and Belgium, the Island was home to many prehistoric monsters. The commonest and best known of all these prehistoric Island inhabitants was a plant-eater called Iguanodon. This creature stood about 5 metres high and was 10 metres long thanks to an impressive tail. As many as three hundred skeletons of these gentle giants have been discovered on the Island since records began.
About 65 million years ago the dinosaurs suddenly became extinct. In the time that has elapsed since then, the Earth’s crust has continued to break up into segments known as tectonic plates. Over time each plate has moved to help form the continents and oceans we recognise today. Eventually, the last Ice Age receded, the sea level rose and about seven thousand years ago, erosion caused the Isle of Wight to finally become detached from mainland Britain, in fact, it is estimated that 50,000 years from now, erosion will destroy the Island entirely!
A hundred and seventy years ago mysterious large “stone horses” were accidentally discovered by workmen as they dug into ancient rock strata. It was not until 1841 when these finds and others were formally grouped and recognised as belonging to a new order of extinct animals, "Dinosaurs", and palaeontology was born.
The Isle of Wight has proved to be a major source of dinosaur bones. Along an 11 mile stretch of sandstone and clay in the Sandown area which is known to geologists as the Wealdon outcrop, lies Europe's most prolific reservoir of dinosaur fossils.
Over 15 types of dinosaur are known to have inhabited the Island and a new species is discovered on average every three years. In 2001 the latest dinosaur to be named officially from the Isle of Wight was Eotyrannus, the oldest ancestor of the mighty Tyrannosaurs.
Dinosaur Farm, situated near Brighstone houses hundreds of bones all found on the Island. The museum also offers a fossil identification service for all your prehistoric finds!
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Dinosaur Isle, in Yaverland, Sandown, is Britain’s first purpose built Dinosaur museum. Visitors can see the thousands of fossils found on the Island and watch scientists at work in the lab.
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