A JURASSIC ‘sea monster’ found by archaeologists in a Cambridgeshire quarry has found its way – in hundreds of pieces – to the Natural History Museum in Oxford.

The 165-million-year-old skeleton belonged to a plesiosaur, a type of long-necked sea creature from the time of the dinosaurs that died out 66 million years ago.

It was discovered by archaeologists from the Oxford Clay Working Group at Must Farm quarry in Cambridgeshire.

Top News

Group member Carl Harrington spotted a fragment of bone sticking out of the clay and a nine-strong team spent the next four days digging it up.

Mr Harrington said: “I’d never seen so much bone in one spot in a quarry. As I was digging among the wet clay, the snout of a plesiosaur started to appear in front of me.

“It was one of those absolute ‘wow’ moments; I was the first human to come face to face with this reptile.”

More than 600 pieces of fossilised bone were recovered from the site and Mr Harrington then spent more than 400 hours cleaning and repairing them.

The specimen is 5.5 metres long, with a long neck, a barrel-shaped body, four flippers and a long tail.

Its skull is still preserved inside a block of clay and has yet to be painstakingly removed. A museum research fellow and professor from the Royal Veterinary College have already CT-scanned the block to pinpoint the location of the bones.

Staff at the museum in Parks Road already think the specimen could prove to be a previously unknown species of plesiosaur.

Once the specimen was dug up, building company Forterra, who own the land and also have a branch in Abingdon, agreed to donate the find to the museum.

Head of land and mineral resources Brian Chapman said: “We are thrilled that such a rare and important prehistoric specimen was unearthed at our Must Farm quarry.

“We’re happy to be able to donate it to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, where it will be studied by leading palaeontologists.”

Dr Hilary Ketchum, earth collections manager at the museum, said: ‘We are so excited that the plesiosaur has come to the museum, where it will be used for research, education and display. We are very grateful to Forterra for their donation, and of course to the Oxford Clay Working Group, who have dedicated a great deal of time, energy and passion to the discovery and excavation of this fantastic fossil.”