Western Morning News (Saturday)
Plesiosaur fossil goes on display
A200-MILLION-YEAR-OLD marine creature, found on the Westcountry’s Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, has finally gone on display – 16 years after it was uncovered by a dog.
The fossil, named Raffle, after the dog which uncovered it on Monmouth beach at Lyme Regis, is one of the few 3D Lower Jurassic plesiosaurs in the world.
It was discovered by Tracey Barclay and Raffle in 2007 and has taken a team of experts more than a decade and a half of painstaking and intricate preparation to be able to finally mount and display the threedimensional specimen.
It has now been unveiled and put on public display at the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre in West Dorset.
Plesiosaurs were long-necked marine reptiles that thrived in the Jurassic seas off Dorset. They had powerful paddle-like limbs, which allowed them to swim through the water.
Plesiosaurs in Dorset are some of the earliest well-preserved specimens in the world. The first-ever complete plesiosaur was found at Lyme Regis in 1824 by Mary Anning, who became known around the world for the discoveries she made in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the Dorset coast.
The more recently discovered specimen is 70% complete and the missing bones have been cast and modelled from the other existing bones of the skeleton.
The plesiosaur was preserved within the famous ammonite pavement of Monmouth beach and after the initial discovery the site was monitored over the next year as natural erosion revealed more articulated vertebra.
Tracey and her partner Chris Moore then got permission from Natural England to extract this very rare skeleton. Monmouth beach is covered by the Undercliffs National Nature Reserve Fossil Code and fossil hunters must get permission from Natural England or the Jurassic Coast Trust before extracting fossils from within the rock ledges or cliffs.
The Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre is open all year round and free for all to visit. It displays countless recent fossil finds from the nearby stretch of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.
The small independent charity relies on donations to remain open for the public and schools. For more information go to www.charmouth. org/raffle-the-plesiosaur/