A prehistoric fossil that was discovered in an English quarry in Harbury will be shown to the public in an interesting insight into the old-time quarrying.
The fossil was originally found in Harbury’s cement quarry, in Coventry, England in 1933 before becoming part of the museum’s exhibit a few decades later in the 1960s.
The quarry was a popular spot for fossils which included the remains of marine reptiles (the ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs) which were found in 1927 and 1928 and other things from the Jurassic Era in England.
The quarry was in operation for around 150 years and excavated for a distinctive blue-grey limestone and building stone and supplied nearby cement works.
It comes after a new search was started closer to Australian shores in Lark Quarry in Queensland.
Museum curator Amy Wells said it was an exciting opportunity to examine the specimen which arrived more than 60 years ago.
“I am delighted at the opportunity to discover more about one of our specimens. Parts of the creature’s teeth, eye ring and skull are visible but the conservation work has brought it to life even more,” Wells told Coventry Live.
“And on top of that there’s the opportunity to have the fossil scanned by Warwick Manufacturing Group to reveal what’s inside, something that was not possible when the specimen first arrived at the museum in 1961.”
Operations were shut down in 1994 before being acquired by a property group in 2001 to be rehabilitated as a leisure and recreation with three parts of it designated as sites of special scientific interest.