It doesn't look much but trust me it's there

After 138 million years we can see it

Digging it out.................................................

Finally free

The beach at Glyne Gap has yielded what has been described as one of the best preserved fossil remains of its type. A story which began 138 million years ago had its sequel on Friday when a Bexhill dustman noticed what looked like some unusual bones on the beach.

Incredibly, although he left them where he found them his curiosity brought him back the following day when he was able to locate them once more.

John Dempsey, of the Fossil Farm at Hastings’s George Street, recognised the find as the head of a Lepidotes and bought it. The fossil is now being prepared in the firm’s workshop for sale to a museum.

John Dempsey said “ It is the best skull I have ever seen from this area. It was three pieces when we got it but it is a skull with teeth. It is only the skull but it would have been a huge fish - 3ft to 3-6” long.

Lepidus (sometimes Lepidotus) lived from the late Triassic to the Early Cretaceous period and is related to modern garfish. It inhabited shallow seas and freshwater lakes. It could grow to more than six feet long and was covered in enamelled scales. It has peg like teeth that enabled it to crush and eat shell fish.