An amateur collector has uncovered the pre-historic remains of a rhinoceros on a north Norfolk beach.

Eastern Daily Press: Martin Warren with a block of sediment containing the remains of teeth and a partial skull of an extinct Rhino found at the base of West Runton Cliffs on the 28th January which he help to excavate.Photo by Mark BullimoreMartin Warren with a block of sediment containing the remains of teeth and a partial skull of an extinct Rhino found at the base of West Runton Cliffs on the 28th January which he help to excavate.Photo by Mark Bullimore (Image: Archant Norfolk 2015)

The beast was found only a few metres away from the world-famous skeleton of the West Runton Elephant and dates from the same period.

Geologist Martin Warren, who spent a day digging out and collecting the find before it was destroyed by the tide, has described the discovery as 'significant.'

It appears to be a partial skull with two sets of tooth rows and was discovered by amateur collector Jonathan Stewart in the world-famous West Runton Freshwater Bed.

The find dates from the Cromerian interglacial period - named after Cromer - some 700,000 years ago.

Eastern Daily Press: Amateur collector Jonathan Stewart, who found the rhino teeth and skull bones, pictured in 2012, during the excavation of a rhino bone, possibly from the same individual. Picture: MARTIN WARRENAmateur collector Jonathan Stewart, who found the rhino teeth and skull bones, pictured in 2012, during the excavation of a rhino bone, possibly from the same individual. Picture: MARTIN WARREN (Image: Archant)

'I can't say that this rhino and the elephant passed each other as they were grazing - they may have been hundreds or thousands of years apart - but they both date from that time period,' said Mr Warren, 63, former curator of Cromer Museum and general secretary of the Geological Society of Norfolk.

Sheringham resident Mr Stewart discovered a rhino bone in the same area in 2012 and Mr Warren said it could be from the same animal but they would have to wait until the latest find had been properly conserved to see whether it could be matched.

In the 1980s and early 1990s Mr Warren himself found tooth rows from another rhino and an even older rhino femur. Both are now in Cromer Museum.

Mr Stewart made the find shortly before dark on January 28 but was due to fly away on holiday the next morning. So the following day Mr Warren worked until after dark capping the exposed specimen with plaster, undercutting and strapping the block surrounding it, and manhandling it up the beach. He said: 'It's pleasing. Anything found in the West Runton Freshwater Bed is always significant.'

Eastern Daily Press: Martin Warren with a block of sediment containing the remains of teeth and a partial skull of an extinct Rhino found at the base of West Runton Cliffs on the 28th January which he help to excavate. Collect Picture of a skeleton on the same species Stefanorhinus hundsheimensis (courtesy of Professor Tony Stuart, with permission) with the correct italicisation and capitalisation by the way of the scientific name.Photo by Mark BullimoreMartin Warren with a block of sediment containing the remains of teeth and a partial skull of an extinct Rhino found at the base of West Runton Cliffs on the 28th January which he help to excavate. Collect Picture of a skeleton on the same species Stefanorhinus hundsheimensis (courtesy of Professor Tony Stuart, with permission) with the correct italicisation and capitalisation by the way of the scientific name.Photo by Mark Bullimore

Eastern Daily Press: A Steppe Mammoth (West Runton Elephant). Picture: DAVID M WATERHOUSE.A Steppe Mammoth (West Runton Elephant). Picture: DAVID M WATERHOUSE. (Image: Archant)