Dinosaur footprints have been discovered on a beach by a young family.

Eight footprints appeared on the Sussex coast after high tides and heavy rain exposed the rocks hidden under sand.

The discovery was made by Vicky Ballinger and two of her children while on a sunset stroll along Bexhill beach.

Vicky, 39, said: “It's actually quite beautiful to see these amazing dinosaur footprints that my children and I found when we came on a walk.

"The kids loved that they could see the track of a dinosaur and walk where it walked - it was very exciting.

"The tide and the heavy rains have washed a lot of sand away recently.

“I grew up in Bexhill and I've never seen these ones before.

"I believe they are iguanodon footprints - they aren't T-rex tracks as they were not about in England, I was playing with my kids!"

Vicky and her two daughters, Lyla and Immy, were walking along the foreshore area from Bexhill to Fairlight when they found the dinosaur prints.

The Argus: An iguanadonAn iguanadon (Image: Rodney Start Museum Victoria)

The rocks Bexhill is situated on are around 140 million years old and contain the remains of the dinosaurs that used to roam its then freshwater surroundings.

Over the years the fossils of several dinosaur species have been found including Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, Baryonyx, Polacanthus and the tooth of a Velociraptor-type animal, many of which are on display at Bexhill Museum.

Four other iguanodon prints believed to date back 130 million years were also found in the area in January.

A statement on Bexhill Museum’s website reads: It says: “The landscape [where the prints were found] would have been dominated by dinosaurs and the most of the fossil remains that can be identified belonged to iguanodon, a five to ten-metre long plant-eating dinosaur.

“Bexhill is famous for the fossil dinosaur footprints that are sometimes exposed on the beach, most of these footprints have been attributed to iguanodon.

“Remains have also been found of the armoured plant-eating dinosaur hylaeosaurus and the meat-eating megalosaurus and baryonyx as well as fragmentary remains of other small dinosaurs.”