At first when Raffle the dog began scratching at something on the beach at Lyme Regis, Tracey Barclay thought he had probably found a boring old stick or stone.
But when she looked closer, Barclay realised Raffle had happened upon something much more interesting – the remains of a plesiosaur, a marine reptile that swam off modern day Dorset 200m years ago.
After 16 years of painstaking work, extracting, cleaning and piecing together the 750 fossilised bones that were eventually found on the spot, the plesiosaur – nicknamed Raffle in honour of the finder – has been put on display at Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre.
“It’s brilliant to see him there in all his glory,” said Barclay, 59. Raffle is one of only a few Lower Jurassic specimens in the world preserved and mounted in 3D, as usually the bones are found pressed flat. “The 3D makes it much more vivid, almost brings him to life,” said Barclay.
She had been walking along the famed “ammonite pavement” at Monmouth beach at Lyme Regis in 2007 with her partner, Chris Moore, who runs a fossil shop and preparation business, and a group of friends.
“It’s a fabulous place to walk but Chris and his friends had walked on. I sat down with Raffle. He suddenly got up and started scratching away.”
She realised that what Raffle, a rescue dog with bits of pointer and labrador in him, had found was a vertebra. “I moved some rocks to see if there were any other bones and spotted a paddle bone – which suggested it could be a plesiosaur.
“Chris was miles away and the tide was coming in. I thought: ‘Oh gosh. It can’t really be a plesiosaur can it?’ I’ve only ever found pyrite ammonites – the sort of thing kids find all the time – before. Chris came back and confirmed what it was.”
A lengthy process began of keeping an eye on the find and, when it was clear that it was something very special, getting the correct permissions to extract it.
The bones were taken to Moore’s workshop and then sent away to be cleaned before being mounted and finally put into place at the heritage centre. “There was a bit of trepidation as it went up,” said Barclay.
About 70% of the fossilised skeleton, which is 3.2 metres long, has been found, with missing bones cast and modelled from the other bones.
The remains of plesiosaurs have long been found in Dorset. Mary Anning, the pioneering palaeontologist and fossil collector, found the complete skeleton of a plesiosaur in 1823. So strange did it seem that there were rumours that it was a fake.
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But the 3D aspect of Raffle makes it all the more special.
Grant Field, from the heritage centre, said: “There are only a handful of these 3D specimens in the world so this was a very rare find.
“It’s the sort of thing you would get in the natural history museums in London or New York. Our centre is free to enter so everyone can come along and see Raffle the plesiosaur.”
Barclay is delighted the plesiosaur has been named after her dog. “It seems only right; after all, it was his find.”
Raffle was nine at the time of the find and has since gone to the great beach in the sky. Barclay has another dog – Ted. “He hasn’t found anything of interest yet but we keep looking,” said Barclay. “There’s always hope.”
