It roamed 130 million years ago ...

Fossil-hunter Frank Hamill has scored his greatest coup.

Dr Angela Milner, head of palaeontology at the Natural History Museum in London, has identified a fossilised bone Frank found on the foreshore at South Cliff as part of the toe of a Diplodocus - a colossal plant-eater 90ft in length.

Frank has donated his find to Bexhill Museum. Curator Julian Porter is "ecstatic" about the find and its implications.

"This is the first evidence we have got from Bexhill that a group of Dinosaurs called the Sauropods once lived here.

"It was Frank who found the Iguanodon jaw bone. Now he has found this toe bone.

"Dave Brockhurst who has also had so much success in fossil hunting locally, took it to Dr Milner and she has authenticated it.

"It is definitely a Sauropod. This would have been the biggest thing ever to have walked through Bexhill.

"For a long time Diplodocus was thought to have been the longest dinosaur that ever lived. They have found one or two even bigger in South America now, but Diplodocus was 25 to 27 metres long - that's around 90ft!

"It would have weighed about 25 tonnes.

"It was absolutely colossal. a planter-eater ; a real giant.

"Obviously, we will be keeping a look out to see if any more such fossils turn up but I really think we will have to have to wait until after the next storm.

"Frank has another bone which we are going to send up to London soon which we think may be from its tail.

"We are ecstatic. We had always assumed that Diplodocus like this were around what is now Bexhill but we had never had any proof.

"Frank has kindly donated his find to the museum. He is always very generous with his finds.

"This fossil, a hind metatarsal, is about 9 inches long. It is a good handful when you are holding it and a foot would have been made up of five toes. You can just imagine this thing ploughing through what has become Bexhill.

"It is very important for Bexhill because we now have another group of dinosaurs that we know were here. We can now prove that these animals were living - and dying - in Bexhill.

"It is a whole new group of dinosaurs which lived in Bexhill 130 million years ago. Before, we have had absolutely nothing - we didn't know that there were Sauropods here.

"The thing about fossils is that there are the exception not the rule. Animals died and were eaten and rotted away. Only about one in 50 became fossilised."

Frank said: "I didn't realise what it was until I was told. I knew it was a fossil and possibly dinosaur. I thought it might be Iguanodon again.

"I am overjoyed - delighted to think that it is the first discovered in Bexhill. I have been fossil-hunting for about 15 years now. I have found quite a few bits and pieces but this is the best."

Julian is now considering how best to display Frank's find. He is hoping to include an illustration of Diplodocus in the display.

But doing the enormous creature justice would require more space than can be spared at present.

Julian says: "Hopefully, when we get our new museum we will be able to show it off."