135-million-year-old dinosaur fossil found in pensioner's rock garden

John Ruggles, of Downham Market, Norfolk, first found the priceless Plesiosaur fossil when he rearranged the garden feature nine years ago.

He said the unusual stone caught his eye, but assumed it was just an ''odd shaped'' rock and used it in his garden as an ornament.

Only in last December, Ruggles, 75, decided to show the rock to experts at local Lynn Museum in King's Lynn to see if they could tell its origin.

Receptionists at Lynn Museum sent it to experts at the Sedgewick Museum of Earth Science in Cambridge for testing.

Soon after that, a letter arrived from the museum informing him that the rock was a 135-million-year old fossil.

The letter said that the 'rock' was a paddle bone from a Plesiosaur, a marine reptile that lived in the Jurassic period over 144 to 65 million years ago.

Ruggles said he would donate the rock to the museum's permanent collection.

Lynn Museum, which is home to a collection of 4,000 year old timbers from Norfolk's Bronze Age timber circle, are looking forward to taking possession of the new artefact.

''You can still see the blood vessels on the bone itself which is very rare. Usually it's just bone that is preserved rather than fleshy parts.

''It was a chance in a million that he found it in his garden and it's a very nice specimen indeed – we will be extremely pleased to have it in the museum collection.''