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The Isle of Wight: Welcome to Dinosaur Island
You may think of the Isle of Wight as just a summer holiday destination.
But if you spend enough time on its sandy beaches and walking next to the dramatic cliffs, you’ll find that this is no ordinary island.
The Isle of Wight is one of the UK’s richest dinosaur fossil sites. The first discoveries were made in the early 1800s, long before the word dinosaur existed, but these bones helped to lay the foundations for our understanding of these now-famous reptiles.
Some 200 years later, people are still discovering new dinosaurs on this little island and it’s becoming increasingly clear that we have only scratched the surface of the secrets it holds.
A treasure trove of fossils
Take a short ferry ride across the Solent, a strip of water off the south coast of England, and you’ll find yourself on the Isle of Wight, a 16-by-27-kilometre, diamond-shaped island.
In 2019 it was designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and about half of the island is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It’s not just popular with tourists looking for lovely landscapes though, it’s a dream destination for palaeontologists too.
‘The Isle of Wight is one of the most important places in the UK for finding dinosaur fossils,’ says Professor Paul Barrett, one of our dinosaur researchers.
The Isle of Wight is known for its beautiful landscapes, sandy beaches and dramatic cliffs. But hidden in its rocks are the fossils of plants and animals that lived millions of years before us. © Melanie Hobson/ Shutterstock
The dinosaur-containing rocks on the Isle of Wight are up to 130 million years old, a part of Earth’s prehistory known as the Cretaceous Period. More than 20 types of Early Cretaceous dinosaurs have been found so far. In fact, you don’t get as much dinosaur diversity in such a small area anywhere else in Europe.
The bounty of fossils doesn’t end there.
‘All sorts of animals lived alongside the dinosaurs,’ says Paul. ‘We have fossils of crocodiles, turtles, tiny mammals, lizards, amphibians, fish, plants, things like freshwater clams and there are also fossils of flying reptiles.’
Animals and plants that came after the dinosaurs are also represented, with fossils and other ancient remains dating through to the Pleistocene Epoch, which lasted from 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago. Ice Age deposits on the island contain evidence of mammals such as steppe bison, mammoths and ancient horses. There are even flint tools used by the island’s prehistoric human residents scattered along the beaches.
‘It’s a treasure trove for lots of different kinds of palaeontologist,’ adds Paul.
You find evidence of prehistoric land- and ocean-dwelling animals on the Isle of Wight. These two fossils are the shells of ammonites, a group of octopus relatives that mostly died out 66 million years ago.
Which dinosaurs are found on the Isle of Wight?
The Isle of Wight has a rich history of palaeontological discoveries, beginning around 1820. These were some of the first dinosaur fossils to find their way into our collection.
‘The first dinosaur bone that we know about from the Isle of Wight was part of the hip of an Iguanodon-like animal,’ explains Paul.
‘But this was found long before the word dinosaur was coined in the 1840s. It had to wait two decades before people realised what it was.’
‘After that, various bones were found. Most of those known from the Isle of Wight were found from about 1860.’
Hypsilophodon was an Early Cretaceous, plant-eating dinosaur that ran around on two legs. The first examples of this dinosaur were unearthed on the Isle of Wight in 1849.
Arguably, the most famous dinosaurs from the Cretaceous are animals such as the three-horned Triceratops or the giant Patagotitan. You wouldn’t see these reptiles if you stepped back 130 million years to a hotter and more humid Isle of Wight, though. The island’s dinosaurs aren’t international superstars on the same scale as Tyrannosaurus rex, but they are from familiar groups.
There were ornithopods such as Iguanodon, Valdosaurus and Hypsilophodon. Plus tank-like armoured dinosaurs such as Polacanthus, which is part of the group known as ankylosaurs.
Meat-eaters included big predators such as Neovenator and Eotyrannus. There is also some evidence of long-necked sauropods - relatives of animals like Diplodocus. This includes footprints and a few bones, though the fossil record of these isn’t as good as it is for other groups.
Professor Paul Barrett and Dr Susie Maidment tell us about their top six dinosaurs that once lived on the Isle of Wight.
Modern-day dinosaur discoveries
In the past, new dinosaur discoveries on the Isle of Wight tended to get lumped into existing species. But over time, scientists have realised that the island had a much higher diversity of dinosaurs.
One such re-think began in 2007, when scientists looked more closely at all of the animals considered to be Iguanodons. The differences they found led them to separate some of the dinosaurs into new groups, such as Mantellisaurus. This fossil skeleton was originally found in 1914 near Atherfield, a village on the Isle of Wight’s southwest coast.
You can visit Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis on display in Hintze Hall. It’s one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons ever found in the UK.
It hasn’t ended there. The year 2021 heralded the arrival of Brighstoneus, an animal found at Brighstone Bay. It was labelled as Iguanodon until PhD student Jeremy Lockwood noticed it had a particularly large nose.
Jeremy, an Isle of Wight local, had more than one run-in with a new dinosaur that year. He was also part of the team that named two new species of spinosaur from the island - Riparovenator and Ceratosuchops.
Then there is a recent addition to the Isle of Wight’s ankylosaurs: Vectipelta barretti, described in 2023. The specimen, discovered in the 1990s, was found to be very different from its relative Polacanthus.
Vectipelta barretti was an armoured dinosaur that lived on the Isle of Wight during the Early Cretaceous. Several characteristics such as blade-like, recurved spikes have helped palaeontologists determine that it is distinct from Polacanthus, another ankylosaur from the island. Read the news story. © Stu Pond
‘New dinosaur specimens turn up all the time,’ adds Paul. ‘At the moment, we’re probably finding a new dinosaur every couple of years on the Isle of Wight.’
Fossil hunters discover individual bones on an even more regular basis. But by far the most common finds are fragments of bone that people find as pebbles on the beach. Their abundance is thanks to the amount of material locked away in the rocks teamed with the high rate of erosion on the island, caused by the ocean lapping against the cliffs.
Paul explains, ‘Fragments of bone fall out of the cliffs, are rolled around by the ocean waves and polished into pebbles like any of the other rocks you might find.’
He adds, ‘The Isle of Wight is one of those places in the UK where you might actually find a dinosaur. You stand a really good chance if you are walking along the beach and just spot a bit of bone lying in the shingle or maybe sticking out of a cliff.’
If you want to find a bit of dinosaur on your next holiday to the Isle of Wight, your best chance is to head to the island’s southwest coast – to Compton Bay, for example.
As well as dinosaur bones, you can find trace fossils such as footprints on the Isle of Wight. This track is one of many that has been spotted at Compton Bay.
While new dinosaurs are exciting, the specimens found in the 1800s still hold value. They are as relevant today as they were over 150 years ago.
Paul explains, ‘Those early discoveries are actually the holotype specimens of many of these dinosaurs - so the specimens that bear the names of those different dinosaurs forever.’
While some of the ideas that scientists had in the 1800s fell out of fashion as science and technology moved on, the Isle of Wight’s fossils helped us begin to understand dinosaurs and paved the way for the field of palaeontology.
Paul adds, ‘Those specimens and the basic observations of the anatomy of those animals, and how they were different from each other, have stood the test of time.’
Inspiring future dinosaur scientists
Keeping a watchful eye over many of the fossils found on the island is the Dinosaur Isle Museum, located in the southeast coastal town of Sandown.
This museum houses the Isle of Wight Council’s geological collection, which began almost 200 years ago. Originally located above Sandown Library, the collection moved to its current, purpose-built location in 2001.
Dinosaur Isle’s exterior is modelled after a pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived at the time of dinosaurs. The museum tells the geological story of the Isle of Wight and its collection includes some of the island’s most important fossils. © Geni (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons
‘It’s not just dinosaurs,’ explains Dr Martin Munt, curator and general manager of Dinosaur Isle. ‘It’s the fossils, the rocks and the minerals from the Isle of Wight. The museum tells the geological story of the island.’
‘It’s a treasure house, just like the Natural History Museum is, but it’s locally focussed, which makes it very special and unique. There is nowhere else quite like us.’
Move through the exhibits here and you’ll encounter Mesozoic marine life, such as ammonites and ichthyosaurs. You’ll walk among enormous model dinosaurs, watch fossil preparators hard at work in the lab and witness the impressive holotype of the carnivorous Neovenator.
Stand back from the white building and you can make out a pterosaur in its roof’s swooping shape - another reminder that dinosaurs aren’t the only prehistoric reptiles on the island.
Martin says, ‘We are very focused on ensuring the very best finds from the Isle of Wight remain here for the benefit of the island’s residents and visitors.’
‘What we also try to do is make it accessible to younger people. We’re using real material and reconstructions in a way that hopefully inspires young people to be into dinosaurs and fossils. That’s what we really want, that’s what we’re about.’
Neovenator was a large carnivorous dinosaur that lived around 130-125 million years ago. It was around 7m long and was likely an apex predator, possibly hunting fellow dinosaurs such as Iguanodon and Polacanthus. © N.Cayla (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons
Future dinosaur discoveries
People have been fossil hunting on the Isle of Wight for around 200 years. Incredible discoveries have been made in that time and collectors continue to find new and interesting specimens.
The rocks that contain dinosaurs here span 12-15 million years. In terms of evolution, that’s a very long time. It’s very likely that the island will continue to reveal amazing things for decades or even centuries to come.
So, if you ever find yourself spending your summer on the Isle of Wight, keep your eyes open for loose fossils as you meander along the beach, and remember that there’s a good chance a brand-new dinosaur is hiding in the cliffs nearby, waiting to be discovered.
Sit back and relax as we take to the air and soar across the Isle of Wight’s breathtaking land and seascapes.
