Posted by The city’s oldest resident, a 210 million-year-old dinosaur, will come to life – skeletally speaking – at long last after Bristol University received £295,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The Bristol Dinosaur – Thecodontosaurus antiquus – is the oldest-known dinosaur in Britain and one of the oldest in the world. When Thecodontosaurus was first discovered in 1834 it was only the fourth dinosaur ever to be discovered.
Thecodontosaurus: Returning after 210million years
Now, thanks to the grant, scientists at the university will remove the rock that has entombed the bones for millions of years and reconstruct them into a full skeleton.
Nerys Watts, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund South West, said the project would help Bristolians and the wider world to learn about the earth’s distant past.
“The remains of the Bristol Dinosaur are of international scientific and heritage importance, offering a chance for us to further understand what our world was like 200 million years ago,” she said.
“Alongside the scientific research, this project will enable local people to learn about one of the city’s most important, but least well known, residents.”
Digging into the past: Scientists at Bristol University will remove bones from rock
The first remains of the Bristol Dinosaur were discovered in 1834 at Durdham Down, but were destroyed when the museum was hit in a World War II bombing raid. Further remains were found at Tytherington Quarry in the 1970s and it is these at the heart of the current research project.
A new Education Officer will visit local schools and work together with Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery, Explore At Bristol and the City of Bristol College to introduce local history to a wide audience in and around the city.
During the three years of the project, a complete skeletal reconstruction of the dinosaur will be attempted for the first time. The team is also committed to finding further resources to build a permanent exhibit in the Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery, with the dinosaur – or possibly a herd of dinosaurs – as a centrepiece, together with full details of how it was found and studied.
Professor Mike Benton from the University of Bristol, said: “This award from HLF will mean that the preparation laboratory can be expanded and a specialist technician employed to oversee the removal of bones from the rock.
“It will also mean more volunteers can be recruited and trained in the extraction process, and there will be opportunities for young people from local schools to learn skills in palaeontology and conservation.”
Thecodontosaurus antiquus is one of the most primitive dinosaurs in the world. During the Triassic period the kangaroo-sized, plant-eating species lived in herds on lushly vegetated islands around Bristol. The outlines of these islands can still be seen today in the shape of the land – Bristol’s famous Downs was one such island.
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