'Rare 3D' Dorset plesiosaur fossil fetches £90k at auction
- Published
The fossil had been expected to fetch up to £30,000
The fossilised skeleton of a plesiosaur discovered on the Jurassic Coast has sold at auction for more than £90,000.
The fossil of the extinct marine reptile, found at Lyme Regis, Dorset, is 90% complete.
Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst, West Sussex, said it was "very rare" to find such a well-preserved plesiosaur.
It was expected to fetch up to £30,000 but sold for £92,280.
In 1823, the first complete skeleton of a plesiosaur was discovered in Lyme Regis by famous fossil hunter Mary Anning.
Rupert van der Werff, from the auction house, said: "It is very rare to find a plesiosaur preserved in 3D, most that come up for sale are on fossilised plates.
"This is the best of its kind that I have seen as it is about 90% complete.
"Plesiosaurs are pretty rare, even on the Jurassic Coast - you are a hundred times more likely to find an ichthyosaur than a plesiosaur."
The creature, which had a long neck and paddle-like limbs, lived in the early part of the Jurassic Period about 182 to 185 million years ago.