Zoo offers skull selfies with woolly rhino fossil

Various dinosaur skeletons and fossils are on display for the festival

The Exotic Zoo in Telford is holding its first fossil festival this weekend, which will include the skull of a woolly rhino.

The event, to be held at the zoo's natural history museum which opened on site in 2023, will feature guest speakers and new prehistoric pieces.

New exhibits include the full-size fossilised woolly rhino skull, and the skeleton of a Jeholosaurus, a small herbivorous dinosaur.

"[The] skull... is huge," said Scott Adams, zoo director.

The festival will walk visitors through the history of Earth, from when it formed to modern day.

"As people make their way around the museum, they can follow the timeline and see exactly what animals were around at each time, how they’ve evolved, how they’ve gone extinct," said Mr Adams.

The fossilised woolly rhino skull will be out of the cabinet, closely guarded by Mr Adams, so that people can take photographs with it and see it up close.

Visitors have the chance to get up close and personal with the fossilised skull of a woolly rhino

It took about 10 years to set up the museum because Mr Adams was determined to use real fossils instead of casts.

"When young people were coming and looking at a dinosaur, I wanted them to look and know that that skeleton had been really inside a dinosaur 120 million years ago," he told BBC Radio Shropshire.

The festival will be held on 1 and 2 June, and entry is included with a zoo ticket.