In summer 2023 a plesiosaur skeleton was offered at auction by Sotheby’s that may have looked familiar. This notable specimen is the ‘Blockley Plesiosaur’, originally offered at auction by Sotheby’s in 2010. This is a potentially significant specimen so I’m flagging it up to briefly discuss the provenance, history, and taxonomic identity of this curious skeleton.
Earlier this month I co-authored a poster at SVP 2012 describing a new pliosaur from the Sinemurian of Lyme Regis (Smith and Araújo 2012). I was unable to attend the conference in person so my collaborator and friend Ricardo Araujo was on hand to present our preliminary findings.
The TCD specimen of the plesiosaur Attenborosaurus has spent the last few weeks being prepared and painted for eventual display in the geology museum. The plesiosaur was renamed in 1993 to honour Sir David Attenborough, who was recently awarded an honorary degree from TCD; we therefore took the fine opportunity to combine his visit with the unveiling of the newly prepared and painted specimen.
There are several casts of fossil marine reptiles in the collection of the Geological Museum of Trinity College, Dublin. The majority of these are currently on display but the largest specimen, a cast of the holotype of Attenborosaurus conybeari, has spent the last half a century in the basement store of the Museum Building.
South Dublin City, 6.30am, Thursday 10th of August 2006. I clamber into the passenger seat of a 4×4 – destination London. My travelling companions are Colin in the driver’s seat, and two suspiciously large wooden crates. A monster lurks inside: the skull of the Dublin plesiosaur.
