A bone believed to be part of the first stegosaur to be named by scientists is returning to Swindon, where it was unearthed more than 150 years ago.
Museum and Art Swindon, run by the local council, has acquired a vertebra thought to be part of the Swindon Stegosaur, which was discovered in a clay pit in the Wiltshire town in 1874.
Upon discovery, the remains were sent to the Natural History Museum, where the dinosaur was identified as a herbivorous Dacentrurus, the first example of a stegosaur, and where most of the bones remain on display.
But fossil hunters Dr Neville and Sally Hollingworth spotted a vertebra online advertised as originating from the Swindon Stegosaur and alerted Swindon Borough Council, which has put the bone on display.
The council’s cabinet member for placemaking and planning, Marina Strinkovsky, said: ‘Swindon was really important in the history of palaeontology and loads of important fossil hunters lived here or visited Swindon in the late 19th Century to look for specimens.
‘The stegosaur ignites the imagination of Swindonians of all ages, and it’s fantastic that a piece of it is coming home.’
