Do YOU know what animal species this mysterious claw belongs to? Experts left ‘baffled’ by ‘dinosaur claw’ found in the couple’s front yard
A couple has left animal experts seemingly mystified after finding a mysterious claw in their front garden in Wales.
Laura Moorcroft of Buckley, Flintshire, “immediately thought it belonged to a dinosaur” when she and her husband discovered the remains.
She said, ‘Me and my husband had just come back from a walk and he saw it on the grass. It seems prehistoric to us – a scaly lizard-like claw.
“We’re big Jurassic Park fans, so we immediately thought it belonged to a dinosaur. I mean, it looks very lizard-like, doesn’t it?”
Laura shared her photo online, letting locals weigh in on their guesses. Some said it belonged to a bird or fowl, but others suspected something reptilian like an alligator, crocodile or turtle.
A couple has left animal experts seemingly mystified after finding a mysterious claw in their front garden in Wales
Seeking a more informed opinion, Laura, 36, contacted Chester Zoo and a local vet. They both said it came from a bird, but even they couldn’t agree on which species.
“One said it looked like a pheasant and the other a turkey, so we’re still none the wiser,” Laura said.
She added: ‘We have CCTV but it was a bit too far out in the yard to pick anything up so it remains a mystery. I like our guess of a velociraptor (a small dinosaur) best; I love that people thought the same way.
“I saw someone think it was a Gremlin! We didn’t think something like this would grab everyone’s attention,” she said of the online reactions to her photo.
Laura Moorcroft (pictured) of Buckley, Flintshire, ‘immediately thought it belonged to a dinosaur’ when she and her husband discovered the remains
Modern birds are descended from theropods, a group that includes raptors and the Tyrannosaurus rex, according to Scientific American.
Arkhat Abzhanov, a biologist at Harvard University, told the magazine, “The first birds were almost identical to the late embryo of velociraptors.”
Unlike their movie counterpart, real velociraptors were also feathered and about the same size as turkeys.