Crocodile skull millions of years old found ‘poking out of rock’

THE skull of a crocodile last seen roaming the earth alongside dinosaurs was unearthed by a fossil-hunter along the British coastline.

Richard Edmonds was walking along the coast at Swanage in Dorset when he found the 60cm skull of a 130 million-year-old crocodile poking out of a rock.

A cliff fall along the World Heritage Jurassic Coast unearthed the prehistoric predator, known as a goniopholis, which would have roamed Dorset’s swamps and lagoons alongside dinosaurs.

Mr Edmonds, earth science manager for the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site team, said: “It’s only the second crocodile skull to be found in the area in the last 30 years.

“It was obviously a real piece of luck to find something like that.

“The crocodile skull really is the find of a lifetime.”

He found the skull on March 28 and it took two weeks to get permission to excavate from the landowner and Natural England agency as the area is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The Cretaceous-era crocodile is on display at the Swanage Museum and Heritage Centre until September when it will be sent for examination by experts from Bristol University and the Natural History Museum.

If they decide it is an important find, it will be donated to a registered museum.