Hospice charity workers stunned by mammoth donation dating back five million years
FOSSILS and animal bones dating back five million years have been donated to a Norwich charity shop.
The extraordinary haul included mammoth bones, the remains of bison and fossilised sea urchins.
Charity workers handed the donation to Norfolk Museum Service to analyse. They were told the items were between 500,000 and five million years old, and were found in Norfolk.
The bones and fossils were dropped off at an East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (Each) shop last summer.
A spokesman for Each, which has the Duchess of Cambridge as a patron, said it hoped the bones would “raise a considerable amount of money” for its new hospice, the Nook, when they are sold. A museum spokesman said the bones were “mostly a mixture of medium-large mammal bones dating from 500,000 years to five million years – the Pleistocene/pliocene epochs.
“There are also belemnite guards – extinct squid-like molluscs – and fossilised echinoids – sea urchins – both of which date back 70-100 million years in Norfolk,” the spokesman added.
Sally Rix, Each shop manager, told North Norfolk News: “The lady who dropped them off said they were genuine and hoped we could get some money for them. We were all very excited because we’d never had anything so unusual or that ancient before.”
The bones are due to go on sale at Framingham Earl School House, when a team of specialists will be valuing items.
Mrs Rix said: “One of my volunteers offered to take them to Norwich Castle Museum. She loaded up her trolley and off she went. She stopped at a bakery on the way, where she was asked about her load – a very excited customer wanted her to stay longer because he was an anthropologist.
“We’d like to thank our anonymous donor and the museum for its time.”
The bones and fossils will be sold on March 10, with all proceeds going to the hospice charity.