Remains preserved in bats' mess
WHAT some would consider rubbish will go on display at Dinosaurland Fossil Museum in Lyme Regis this week.
It is a pristine cave bear from Russia that is 50,000 years old, which was preserved in bat droppings.
The guano has been mined for its phosphate content and until recently any bones found have been treated as a contaminant and thrown away.
The owner of the museum, Steve Davies, who worked all over the world as the chief palaeontologist for BP, said he got the bear through a friend.
He said: "I have a network of friends who keep a look out for special things for me.
"It was a case of he managed to find a bear, 'did I want it? but I need to know now'.
"I said yes and then had to sort out what to do with it after that."
Mr Davies, who has run the museum with his wife, Jenny, for the last 12 years, received the bones in a box in August.
He has steadily worked on reconstructing the skeleton in his garage since then and moved it to the museum on Tuesday.
The remains are of a female bear, which is 2.35 metres tall, has big teeth and long sharp claws.
Mr Davies said: "She is fantastic. The pictures I've taken do not do her justice. She is really big, the teeth are great and so are the claws.
"It is a perfect skeleton."
He said despite the appearance, the bear was more like a panda than a grizzly bear and it was a vegetarian.
He said: "A lot of them have been found in the past in the caves of central southern Europe, where they mine the bat droppings.
"The bones have been regarded as a contaminant and treated as rubbish."
He said this bear was discovered last year and will now go on permanent display at the museum in Coombe Street, from this week.
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