A Bolivian tourist guide has stumbled on a dinosaur footprint 1.2m (4ft) wide, believed to be the largest found in the country. The mammoth print most likely belonged to the Abelisaurus, a biped meat-eater that once roamed South America some 80 million years ago.

It was located in the Maragua zone about an hour outside of the city of Sucre in central Bolivia, an area of soft clay that has been the location of other similar discoveries, if not as large. Abelisaurus remains have also been found in the area.

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Paleontological guide Grover Marquina found the footprint while exploring the zone to design a tourist route at the request of the Sucre city administration and the Viceministry of Science and Technology.

"This print is bigger than any other we have found to date in the area," Argentine paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia told Reuters. "It is a record in size for carnivorous dinosaurs from the end of the Cretaceous period in South America."

Bolivian dinosaur footprint
Paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia points to a dinosaur's footprint discovered about an hour outside the Bollivian city of Sucre Reuters/David Mercado

Scientist Omar Medina of the Bolivian Paleontology Network believes it could be one of the largest footprints of this species ever found anywhere in the world, reports Agencia EFE.

Apestguia believes the creature that left the footprint could have been as large as a Tyrannosaurus rex.