More than 100 species of dinosaurs once roamed Britain, a paleontologist has said in his new book.
Author Dean Lomax claims that Britain was once a 'dinosaur paradise' but that the UK's rich reptilian past has been largely forgotten in popular culture.
Among the mammoth beasts were cousins of America's top predator - the Tyrannosaurus rex.
At least three different types of these tyrannosaurs hunted on two legs in the British Isles during their lifetime.
The list also included stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, ornithopods and gigantic sauropods, one of which may be the largest dinosaur found in Europe.
These claims are part of a new book called Dinosaurs of the British Isles which investigates our nation's prehistoric days.
Dr Lomax, the 24-year-old writer, said: "The term Dinosauria, meaning 'terrible lizard', was conceived by the British palaeontologist Sir Richard Owen almost 200 years ago for fossils found in England.
"Sadly, when most people are asked to name a dinosaur, the chances are they would give a foreign example, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, even though the British Isles was a veritable dinosaur paradise."
The Megalosaurus, the first-ever dinosaur to be described, was found in Oxfordshire in 1824.
Most remains are recovered in Oxfordshire and the Isle of Wright from rocks dating back to the Middle Jurassic and Cretaceous periods but some significant finds have been made in Scotland, Wales and Northern Island.
Dr Lomax said: "Growing up in Yorkshire, I had always wanted to learn about the dinosaurs discovered here, yet all the books I read, or programmes watched on TV, made only passing comments to some of the remains discovered in the British Isles."
Dinosaurs Of The British Isles, by Dean Lomax and Nobumichi Tamura, is published by Siri Scientific Press.