Prehistoric crowd-puller in March
TV star Nigel Marven was in March on Saturday – and was up-staged by a 250,000-year-old wooly rhino skull!
The wildlife TV presenter, producer and author – who presented the Prehistoric Park TV series – visited the town’s Fossils Galore to unveil the skull to the public and launch a new educational cinema with surround-sound at the High Street venue that features his DVDs.
But the skull proved the big attraction – with hundreds of people queuing throughout the day to get a glimpse of what is now the star exhibit.
Jamie Jordan, owner and founder who launched Fossils Galore three years ago, said: “Nigel is our patron and came down to unveil the skull and launch the cinema.
“The skull really is a star attraction at the moment. Everyone wants to see it.
“We had over 500 people visiting on Saturday and there were queues all day.”
The skull was unearthed in a field near March and Jamie revealed: “It’s the skull of a young male wooly rhino.
“We believe it’s 250,000 years old and it possibly died after a fight with another male.It has taken 200 man hours to preserve it and cost just over £5,000.”
Fossils Galore is an educational activity centre that ploughs all profits back into the venture to educate people on what lies beneath our feet and help families to build up their own fossil collections.
It also works with local landowners to try to save as many fossil specimens as possible and visitors on Saturday were able to see an Ice Age display featuring fossils of wooly buffalo, wooly mammoth, cave bear and wooly hippo all found locally.
The special open day also featured a chance to handle reptiles with Kevin Dennis, of Fangtasia of Wisbech, face painting and glitter tattoos with Gary Tustin of Bamboogie Family Entertainment, of March, plus fossil hunting, panning for gold, balloon modelling and a dinosaur fancy dress competition.
