According to reports, several dinosaur bones were discovered during a visit to a factory in Ewhurst, Surrey. Weinerberger, a UK building material solutions manufacturing company and the world’s largest producer of bricks, owns the factory.
Palaeontologists Jamie Jordan and Sarah Moore were reportedly examining a block of compacted clay that had formed a hard boulder before realising the ‘true scale’ of the discovery.
Weinerberger personnel were then reportedly alerted of the discovery, before Jordan and Moore were allowed to excavate the bones and begin the process of uncovering the species of the dinosaur.
Excavation discovery
According to a Weinerberger media release, the excavation process took place in February and lasted four weeks, uncovering seven blocks containing dinosaur bones in total.
Volunteers then assisted Jordan and Moore to extract and transport the blocks to the Fossils Galore museum owned by Jordan in Cambridgeshire, UK. Here the bones were confirmed as the remains of an iguanodon dinosaur that was later nicknamed ‘Indie’ by the palaeontologists.
{{image2-a:r-w:200}}In a company statement, Jordan thanked volunteers and the Weinerberger team for their assistance.
“Indie was hidden inside huge compacted clay blocks and was on a slope, making the process difficult at times,” he said.
“However, due to the hard work of the Fossils Galore volunteers, we were able to extract and transport the remains to our preparation lab where we continue to work on her today.”
Weinerberger sustainability manager Stephanie Palmer added the discovery was ‘extremely exciting’.
“Finding a skeleton like Indie could shed more light on the creatures that roamed the earth millions of years ago and progress the studies into the prehistoric world,” Palmer said, adding, “The Weinerberger team is committed to preserving our heritage, so was more than happy to support with this exceptional find.”
A herbivore that lived during the Cretaceous period some 132 million years ago, the iguanodon is said to have been three metres tall and thought to have weighed the equivalent of an African elephant at 4.5 tonnes.
Indie is now on display for the public to view as experts continue to uncover more of the skeleton.
Weinerberger was founded in 1819 in Vienna, Austria. Today, the company is the world’s largest producer of bricks, and Europe's largest clay roof tile producer with 227 plants in 27 countries.
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