AN amazing reminder of the age when dinosaurs roamed the earth is the latest exhibit at a showpiece National Trust venue.

Dinosaur tracks, thought to be 175 millions years old, were discovered four years ago at a secret location on the North Yorkshire coast.

Yesterday, following a delicate and painstaking operation to preserve the finds, a cast of the complete trackway was presented to the old coastguard station at Robin Hood's Bay.

When the prints were discovered by Dr Phil Manning, of the Yorkshire Museum, and Dr Dave Williams, of the Open University, they were in a sandstone block perched precariously on a cliff edge.

In a desperate race against time, they worked with English Nature and the National Trust to recover the trackway, winching manageable sections one at a time up the 400ft cliffs.

The sections were reassembled at the museum during a year-long project and, as a "thank-you" to the trust, Dr Manning and Dr Williams presented officials with a cast of the complete trackway, which has visible prints from predatory meat eaters and plant-eating dinosaurs.

Dr Manning said: "This is a remarkable slice of Jurassic life, a 175 million-year-old moment frozen in time.

"What is particularly exciting is that it is evidence of these creatures when they were alive in Yorkshire. It is the first find of an almost complete set of tracks on the Yorkshire coast."

Richard Hodgson, the National Trust's area warden for coastal estates, said: "We are delighted to have assisted with this important project."