The skull of a horned animal, which became extinct 400 years ago, has been discovered on a UK beach. Dannielle Keys, 51, made the fascinating find of an auorch's remains in Northumberland.
Aurochs were wiped out during the 17th century after the last remaining creature died in Poland in 1627. The males of the species were 6ft tall and weighed 236st.
This made it one of the largest herbivores in the Holocene, as the animal wandered around Asia and Northern Europe. Now, centuries after their extinction remains from the majestic creatures have been rediscovered on Great Britain's shores, reports Leicestershire Live.
Danielle spotted a skull poking out from the sand whilst wandering along Blyth Beach during low tide on Wednesday, November 2. The professional musician, baffled by her discovery, took pictures of it and looked it up online to try and ascertain what she was looking at.
She also emailed the images of the skull to the Great North Museum in Newcastle, who informed her it was from an auroch. The next day, Dannielle returned back to the beach to dig up her find and take it home.
She said: “When I got home I told my partner about it and we had a little look on the internet. Luckily when I went back down the next day with the car it was still there.
“It is quite exciting really. It is not every day that you find something as unusual or as old as that. I will be going back down to the beach over the next few weeks at low tide and having a look around to see if there's any other remains, because you never know.”
Dannielle plans to sell the 2.5ft long and 1.5ft long skull and has already received several lucrative offers from potential buyers online. She said: "It haven’t done anything with it yet, it’s still just drying out. Someone has made us an offer for it, but I'm holding off yet. I'm not sure who will buy but it has to go. It's just too large to stay here."
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