West Runton beach reveals more pre-historic bones

At 8am this morning amateur paleontologists came down to the cliffs at West Runton beach to excavate what they believe are the bones of a prehistoric elephant.

The group were at the beach for a second day in a row.

A large bone believed to be a humorous of the animal was revealed (Image: Sonya Duncan) John Clayden,77 and who made the initial find of believed elephant bones on Tuesday, said: “When we started to clear it out we found a near perfect humorous bone this morning.

“Clearing out the side I hit a foot bone.

“We can age it roughly by its position in the cliff.

“All the leg bones seem to be in one hole, it was painstaking getting it out.

"We believe it to be a straight tusked elephant. 

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The removed bones (Image: Sonya Duncan)“It’s broken up quite a lot but it’s out and will be pieced back together.

“I feel great, the adrenaline, it is amazing."

Amateur palaeontologist, John Clayden (Image: Sonya Duncan)READ MORE: West Runton bones found by amateur palaeontologists

Mr Clayden, who moved to North Norfolk in 1987 and has been combing the beaches there since 1982, had planned to go to nearby Sheringham to pick up furniture on Tuesday - which led to his epic bone-finding quest.

He said: "I was early, so I decided to come down here and have a look. 

“Every time there is a storm I come down here searching the base of the cliffs with Dan and Johnathon, there's many different types of finds here."

The amazing discovery attracted a crowd today as locals came to help and bag up finds for later examination.

The finds attracted a lot of attention through the day (Image: Sonya Duncan) John Clayden explaining the finds to children from Eaton Primary, who happened to be on a fossil finding trip (Image: Sonya Duncan) Fellow bone hunter Dan Chamberlain, aged 55, said: "Some people wouldn't know what it was if they found it. 

"We try and recover everything and save it. 

"I have lots of finds at home that I keep to piece back together. 

"This will go back to how it was sitting when we dug it out. "

Dan digging around the bone (Image: Sonya Duncan) READ MORE: Stalham could become only Norfolk town without a public loo

Cheryl Taylor, a beachcomber who came to help, said: “I can’t keep away, I love it.

“I cried when I found out about it."

Louise O'Shea, of Seaview Beach Café, said: “It’s the biggest find since the 1990 mammoth.

“Everything that is in the cliffs, you have to wait until it shows out because you can’t dig at a site of specific scientific interest."

The team have made contact with the British Natural History Museum about the find. 

What the straight tusked elephant would have looked like (Image: Hsu Shu-yu)