It's Not Only Dracula You Find Near Whitby!

A fossil, from the coast North of Whitby (where Dracula made his landing in England, according to Bram Stoker's novel), was a low-key exhibit in Sheffield's new Yorkshire Natural History Museum. The rock turned out to be much more important than was initially realised (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/aug/15/expert-makes-rare-find-sheffield-museum-opening-day-yorkshire-natural-history-museum). Palaeontologist and Ichthyosaur expert, Dean Lomax, was engaged to open the new museum. Ichthyosaurs are extinct, marine reptiles, popularised, in Victorian times, by Dorset's Mary Anning. Lomax identified the fossil as (probably) the oldest known example of a vertebrate embryo. The word 'probably' is inserted, as embryos can also be found in fossilised dinosaur eggs. Ichthysaurs couldn't come ashore to lay eggs. The females consequently retained embryos in their reproductive tracts. In many regional UK museums material, collected in earlier times, often simply languished, undisplayed in drawers. It only takes, however, expert or specialist analysis to reveal their true importance.