Rare ancient crocodile fossil found in UK

Imagine going on holiday to the beach and finding a rare 200-million-year-old fossil?!

Well, that's exactly what happened to Heather Salt, who collects and hunts for fossils as a hobby.

She travelled to Lyme Regis, a seaside town on the south coast of England, which is famous for having lots of fossils and was home to famous palaeontologist Mary Anning.

Whilst searching, Heather found part of a jawbone from the world's oldest marine crocodile.

It's so rare there are thought to be only 11 known fossils discovered of the animal.

Hannah said she found the fossil on the beach and at first thought it was nails stuck in wood.

"I went and showed it to Casey" - a fossil walk guide with Lyme Regis Museum - "and he got so excited and he just said - 'are you kidding me!' and he was calling everyone over to have a look."

"After, I said to Casey: 'Well, I just wanted to find a little ammonite."

"He said: 'I would trade you my entire collection of ammonites for that.'"

Ammonites were an ancient species of extinct mollusc - ocean creatures with hard shells that lived millions of years ago, around the time that dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Before leaving, Hannah spoke to Lyme Regis museum's geology curator, Dr Paul Davis.

"He came rushing over and he got so excited and he said, 'that's a croc!'"

She said after she learnt how important the find was, she was happy to donate it to the museum.

The fossil went on display to the public last week as part of the museum's exhibit on the "Charmouth Crocodile".

Dr Davis said this find will help researchers understand how the animal's jaws worked and how it caught fish.

The "Charmouth crocodile" spent most of its life in the sea, only coming ashore to lay eggs and raise young.

It was about two metres long, and its thin, long snout was thought to be specially adapted for eating fish.

It's part of the group Crocodylomorpha, which stretches back around 230 million years to the early Jurassic.