A 'UNIQUE' dinosaur fossil which is 200 million years old and took 16 years to put together is now on public display in west Dorset.

‘Raffle’ the Plesiosaur can now be viewed at Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre in Lower Sea Lane.

The fossil is one of the few 3D Jurassic Plesiosaurs in the world and has been loaned to the Dorset centre.

The 'incredible' piece of history was discovered by Tracey Barclay and her dog Raffle in Lyme Regis in  2007 and it has taken a team of experts 16 years to finally mount and display the three-dimensional specimen.

Plesiosaurs were long necked marine reptiles that thrived in the Jurassic seas of Dorset, boasting powerful paddle-like limbs, which allowed them to swim through water.

The first ever complete Plesiosaur was found at Lyme Regis in 1824 by Dorset's very own Mary Anning.

The specimen in Charmouth is 70 per cent complete and the missing bones have been cast and modelled from other existing bones of the skeleton.

It is named after Raffle, Tracey’s dog, who was sat on the first exposed bone which led her to the discovery.

The Plesiosaur was preserved within the famous ammonite pavement of Monmouth beach, Lyme Regis and the site was monitored over the next year.

Natural erosion revealed more bones and Tracey and her partner Chris Moore then got permission from Natural England to extract the very rare skeleton.

Permission needs to be sought from the organisation before extracting any fossils from Monmouth beach, which is protected. 

The bones were extracted by a team comprising of Mr Moore, Alex Moore, Steve Etches, Richard Edmonds, Chris Duggan, Chris Dodds and Dave Baldwin.

The discovery is one of many historic finds on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset - most recently an ancient 'marine crocodile' thought to be about 185 million years old was discovered in Charmouth and has been donated to the Lyme Regis Museum. 

The Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre is open all year round and free for all to visit and view recent fossil finds from this stretch of the Jurassic Coast.

The small independent charity relies on donations to remain open for the public and schools.

Visit charmouth.org/chcc to find out more.