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My favourite and rarest find from my latest long stay trip to the Isle of Wight (whilst working for a local museum). To the layman's eye this might look like just a "funny rock" but it's actually a Hypsilophodon (small Ornithopod dinosaur) caudal vertebra within matrix. Finding any "Hypsy" fossils are rare and most of the time they are only commonly found in the aptly named "Hypsilophodon bed" which is further along the cliff beds to where I picked this up at Grange chine. Sadly part of the vertebra is missing (hence the cross section) but if it had been complete it would have been almost impossible to find so double-edged sword. After discovering the fossil at precisely 6:43 pm ( on the 24th of August) I immediately took it to the museum where a few palaeontologists inspected it (at this point we were unsure of the ID). We all decided that it was worth taking out of the matrix...Luckily there is an expert fossil preparator on the island who has the correct tools, knowledge and experience to deal with fossils this size. (Most people were far too scared to attempt!) Once the fossil was taken out of the matrix we were able to confirm its ID as "Hypsy". I'm honestly so chuffed with this! I've found dinosaur teeth and very large bones in the past but nothing yet until now from a Hypsilophodon. * I apologise in advance that the photos are not the best! Once my DCLR camera is uploaded I'll have better photos.