Dinosaur remains discovered at Wienerberger’s Ewhurst factory

Palaeontologists from Fossils Galore have discovered dinosaur bones at one of Wienerberger factories, which is based in Ewhurst, Surrey.

Upon a visit to the factory in February, Fossil Galore’s Sarah Moore and Jamie Jordan discovered a block of compacted clay, which had formed a hard boulder. After splitting it open, they discovered layers of associate bones which prompted an investigation.

After learning of the discovery, Wienerberger gave its permission for Jamie, Sarah and their team of palaeontologists to excavate the bones. The process began in February and took a total of four weeks to complete.

A group of volunteers helped to extract the blocks where the bones were buried, and prepare them for transportation to the Fossils Galore centre, which is located in Cambridgeshire. 

The team successfully excavated seven blocks of bones from the Wienerberger quarry and shipped them to the laboratory to be cleaned, analysed and preserved. 

Dinosaur remains

A close examination confirmed that the bones belonged to an Iguanodon, a herbivore from the Cretaceous period. Approximately 132 million years ago, the dinosaur would have been three metres tall, 10 metres wide and weighed a total of 4.5 tons. 

The Fossils Galore centre continued to work on the excavated blocks, in order to expose more bones and piece them together. The dinosaur has been named Indie. 

The centre has created a fish bowl lab, which enables visitors to watch as its team of palaeontologists works to dust and analyse the findings, and ask questions about the project.

Regarding the discovery, Wienerberger’s Sustainability Manager, Stephanie Palmer, said: ‘Finding such a skeleton could shed more light onto the creatures that roamed the earth millions of years ago, and progress the studies into the prehistoric period. The Wienerberger team was more than happy to support this exceptional find.’

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