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Newly revealed "footprints" thought to be Wales' latest dinosaur find are being investigated by researchers from the Natural History Museum.

They are imprinted on rock at the beach in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan.

Prehistoric finds have already been unearthed on the same section of coastline, including that of a distant cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex in 2014.

If confirmed, researchers said the discovery would be "really, really exciting".

The prints are embedded in a section of rock previously thought to contain other fossilised tracks of a prehistoric creature.

If confirmed, they would be the third set of dinosaur tracks in Wales and a huge boost to the area's archaeological heritage, according to palaeontologist Cindy Howells, of the National Museum of Wales.

"If these are indeed dinosaur footprints it's going to be really, really exciting," she said.

"The beds that we were seeing a few years back have been increased, there is even more of them now than when we first saw them a few weeks back.

"The new ones, they look better. They look more convincing to be dinosaur footprints.

"It's going to be incredibly exciting if they are proved."

The process for confirming their provenance will centre on several factors for researchers from the museum, including their regularity, stride pattern and the geological area in which they were found.

But one of the key indicators that may point towards the prints being genuine is the pattern of so-called "squelch marks".

"If you can't see the specific shape, quite often you'll look for other features, like the fact that you get one or two footprints in a left-right pattern," Ms Howells said.

"You also look for the size and shape of these holes and you'll look for things like the rounded rims you've got on these, [which] we call 'squelch marks'. So as the animal is putting its feet into the clay, into the mud, the mud is rolling up around the foot.

"It's a very rare thing to find new footprints."

Uncovering evidence of prehistoric life around the cliffs in the Vale of Glamorgan is not necessarily a surprise.

Similar areas with footprints have already been verified further down the coast, near Barry and Porthcawl.

And in 2014, Wales' fossil-hunting community was treated to the discovery of Wales' first theropod skeleton at Lavernock Point by brothers Nick and Rob Hanigan.

It is an area that is primed for further discovery too, according to geologist John Nudd, from the University of Manchester, due to its prevalence of eroding cliffs from the fossil-rich Jurassic period.

"There are huge numbers of fossils," he said.

"Anywhere on the beach here you're bound to find bits of Jurassic rocks and you can't fail to find fossils. Every bit you look in almost has bits of fossils.

"There must be others. They will turn up one day."

The Natural History Museum declined to comment on the research.