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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Nicola Davis Science correspondent

Block export of ‘national treasure’ UK fossils, says MP

A curled ammonite fossil visible within a large rock near the sea front
An ammonite fossil on the beach in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Photograph: Loop Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

An MP has called on ministers to change export controls so that significant fossils can be classed as national treasures after one of the UK’s best collections, unearthed on Dorset beaches, was sold overseas.

Last week, a Guardian investigation revealed that an unparalleled collection of fossils from the UK’s Jurassic Coast, comprising hundreds of specimens including ichthyosaurs, had been sold to the Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi for what one source described as an “eight-figure sum”.

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