BRISTOL (AFP) - The country's oldest dinosaur, which has been buried in rock since it roamed the Triassic landscape over 200 million years ago, is to be excavated, researchers said Tuesday.

A rock specimen found in a quarry in Gloucestershire in the 1970s holds the remains of the Thecodontosaurus antiquus, one of the oldest dinosaurs in the world.

Experts at Bristol University have wanted to excavate the site ever since, and will now be able to thanks to a 295,000-pound grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

"This award from HLF will mean that the preparation laboratory can be expanded and a specialist technician employed to oversee the removal of bones from the rock," Professor Mike Benton from the University of Bristol said.

"It will also mean more volunteers can be recruited and trained in the extraction process and there will be opportunities for young people from local schools to learn skills in palaeontology and conservation."

The "socket-tooth lizard" lived on hot and vegetated islands which made up south west England during the Triassic period, the remnants of one survives today as the Bristol Downs.

It is hoped that the four-foot long herbivore, also known as the "Bristol Dinosaur," will one day be fully excavated and displayed in Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery.