Local Ely researcher Dr Peter Hoare has sent out an appeal to let him examine any Pliosaur bones locals may still own from the 1952‡ find in Stretham. At that time, Cambridge University’s Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences took what bones they wanted from the Ouse River Board excavation; locals were then allowed to help themselves to the rest. In the intervening sixty-years, experts have come to realise that the find—originally named Stretosaurus to commemorate its find in Stretham—is more important than at first reported. Contact Peter here.

The Stretosaurus macromerus find was shown in Little Thetford: 7000+ years of human presence, a talk first given to the Ely & District Archaeological Society by Dr Young and Dr Hoare in January 2010. John Parish has since given that talk to a number of local societies. It is also known that local farmers such as John Parish and John Bedford have found many bones over the years, some of which may be part of this up to 150 million year old sea-monster.

John McCullough

†Headline (melody) with apologies to James Wheldon Johnson
‡The Ely Standard and Cambridgeshire Times, Friday 13 June 1952