Block export of ‘national treasure’ UK fossils, says MP

Sale of one of UK’s top collections overseas prompts call new rules to help keep items in country

• One of UK’s best fossil collections sold in ‘loss to the nation’

An MP has called on ministers to change export controls so that significant fossils can be classed as national treasures after one of the UK’s best collections, unearthed on Dorset beaches, was sold overseas.

Last week, a Guardian investigation revealed that an unparalleled collection of fossils from the UK’s Jurassic Coast, comprising hundreds of specimens including ichthyosaurs, had been sold to the Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi for what one source described as an “eight-figure sum”.