An amateur metal detector got the internet talking with his unusual find.
An amateur metal detector got the internet talking with an unusual find in north Norfolk.
Robert Mee unearthed a phallus-shaped fossil on the same stretch of coastline where the skeleton of a mammoth was discovered 27 years ago - prompting claims it is a mammoth penis.
He made the discovery following a visit to Hunstanton - just 30 miles from where the West Runton mammoth, which last walked on the Norfolk coast more than 700,000 years ago and is often referred to as an elephant, was found.
Mr Mee shared a snap of his find on a social media page for fossil hunters in Norfolk and appealed for help to identify it.
Commenting on the post, Aylmerton Field Study Centre trainee instructor Niall Thorogood, who found a baby mammoth tooth on West Runton Beach in April, said: 'Odd shape.'
Richard Rockett said: 'It looks like a fossilised phallus.'
Alison Cramp added: 'Elephant penis?'
Some experts have dismissed it as a trace fossil, such as faeces left behind by animals, rather than the preserved remains of the body of the actual animal itself.
Over the past 27 years north Norfolk's eroding coastline has yielded up scores of prehistoric treasures including the oldest human footprints found outside Africa, and the most complete skeleton of a mammoth anywhere in the world.
Work has begun on branding a stretch from West Runton to Happisburgh as the Deep History Coast, reflecting its global importance in the story of life on earth.
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