LISBON (AFP) - Scientists said they have uncovered 130 100-million-year-old fossilised dinosaur footprints on a beach in central Portugal.

"This is one of the places in Portugal with the greatest concentration of dinosaur footprints," geologist Miguel Telles Antunes of Lisbon's Universidade Nova told reporters at a news conference.

At least 100 footprints, which were found along 17 different tracks in an 80 square metre (861 square foot) area, are very well preserved, scientists said.

The site at Olhos de Agua, located some 70 kilometres (43 miles) north of Lisbon, is still being cleared and researchers are analyzing the find, which dates back to the early cretaceous period, the last of three dinosaur eras.

The prints are likely to have been left by therapods, the fast-moving two-legged carnivores with grasping hands that could grow up to seven metres (23 feet) long, as well as by iguanodons, the giant four-legged plant-eaters known for their long tails.

Scientists were first alerted to the find by a local resident who spotted some of the footprints while on a walk on the beach in August.

Local officials said they would cover the footprints with plastic bags to protect them from winter rains and eventually hope to put the dinosaur find on display to the general public.

Full Story

How do you miss dinosaur footprints on a public beach? Am I missing something? Probably.

Yup Snuffy you probly are missing something.
What happens is, the fosilised footprints are covered by the sand. Gradually uncovered millions of years later by the sea, which takes sand away, little by little as the tide comes in and out. Eventually the fosilised footprints become exposed.

Thanks Halo, I knew there was something I wasn't seeing.