Warwickshire’s dinosaurs come home
Warwickshire County Council Museum Service will soon be offering a unique and fascinating sneak preview of some Jurassic bone fragments from the discovery of Warwickshire’s very own dinosaurs.
The intriguing story begins 170 million years ago when the carcasses of two Jurassic dinosaurs were washed up on a beach over what is now southern Warwickshire. They remained there until 50 years ago, when a number of the shattered bones were discovered in a local quarry, the quarry soon falling into disuse.
For several decades the rock fragments and the bones that they contain were cared for by Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. They were recently returned ‘home’ to Warwickshire and will be on public display from February 17.
The finds are probably the most significant dinosaur remains to have been discovered in the West Midlands. Warwickshire County Council Museum staff are of course thrilled that they are the custodians to such important geological remains.
Study of the rock fragments by our museum staff suggests that the bones belong to two very different types of dinosaur; a giant long-necked plant-eater and a top Jurassic predator looking a little like a scaled-down T-Rex. Cutting-edge research indicates that our predator and its relatives were distant, hellish ancestors of modern birds.
In life, our long-necked Brontosaurus-like plant-eater, browsing amongst the tree-tops, would have given the stealthy carnivore a very wide birth. In death, they were entombed together in the shifting sand of a Jurassic shoreline. Just exactly how this came to be, we may never know.
Dr Jon Radley, Warwickshire County Council Museum’s Keeper of Geology said: “Until recently we thought that Middle Jurassic Warwickshire looked like a tropical sea-life centre. What is so amazing is how much we can tell from so little. Although we have a long way to go, these isolated remains are already painting a picture of steamy forested islands, ruled by these extraordinary dinosaurs. It is all starting to sound like a rather well-known Hollywood film.”
A number of the dinosaur bone fragments will be on display at Warwickshire County Museum, Market Place, Warwick, for a short period from February 17 onwards before they are removed in March for further conservation and study. The Museum is open every Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm.