Jurassic bark? Raffle the dog’s rare fossil find goes on display in Dorset

Tracey Barclay and Chris Moore at the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre next to the plesiosaur fossil that Raffle the dog found on Monmouth beach. Photograph: Graham Hunt/BNPS

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.