Clever dogs dig up a (65 million year old) bone
A DOG walker was stunned when his pets led him to a 65 million-year-old dinosaur skeleton while out for a stroll on the beach.
Jon Gopsil was walking his pets Poppy and Sam when they stumbled across a bone.
The keen amateur fossil hunter could not believe his eyes when it turned out to be part of a 5ft-long ancient sea creature.
Jon made his incredible find in Stolford, Somerset, at the weekend.
The skeleton – which he believes to be an ichthyosaur – came to light after a week of rough seas on the south coast.
Incredible
The ichthyosaur was a porpoiselike mammal that lived during the Mesozoic era, between 250 million and 65 million years ago.
Jon said: “I often go to the beach walking with my dogs and when the tide goes out we go out to the rocks because they like playing there.
“I have always been a bit of an amateur fossil hunter and I have found a good supply of ammonites, so I always keep my eyes open.
“We were at the beach when I saw this thing and thought ‘What’s that?’ so I went a bit closer and thought, ‘Wow!’
“I thought it was obviously a fossilised sea creature, possibly an ichthyosaur. It doesn’t have a head – I have looked around but I can’t find it. It has been there for at least 65 million years.” Psychiatric nurse Jon, 54, has tried to contact both Somerset Heritage and the Natural History Museum to report the find – but is still waiting for a response.
He said: “I realised straight away that it was amazing, museum-quality stuff.As soon as I saw it I knew I had found something special. I was just blown away to see it there.
“It really is incredible that it has survived for such a long time and is now just there for everyone to see.” The next day Jon went out on the beach again and this time cockapoo Poppy brought him a stone which also turned out to be a fossil. He said: “I couldn’t believe it – I’ve taught her what fossils are but didn’t expect her to bring me one. “My wife says it was just luck – I think having had the stormy weather recently has washed a lot of mud out so the rocks were a little more exposed.”