Mammoth bones donated to Norwich charity shop

Animal bones dating back five million years - including some from a mammoth - have been handed in to a charity shop.

The remains of bison and fossilised sea urchins were also among the donations handed into the Norwich branch of East Anglia's Children's Hospices (EACH).

Norfolk Museum Service, which was asked to examine the items, said they dated from 500,000 to five million years ago and had all been found locally.

Sally Rix, manager of the charity shop, said the gift was "definitely a first".

The mammal bones - which include two from either Steppe or southern mammoths, red deer and bison - included in the donation from the anonymous woman mostly date back to the Pleistocene and Pliocene epochs, the museum service said.

It said all the bones and fossils would have been found in Norfolk, although it is not yet clear exactly where they were discovered - or when.

Belemnite guards, extinct squid-like mollusc and fossilised echinoids - or sea urchins - "both of which date back 70-100 million years in Norfolk" were also identified by the report.

The museum assessment did not put a price on the items.

The sale of the bones and fossils will take place next month, the charity said.

EACH, which has the Duchess of Cambridge as patron, said it hoped the items would "raise a considerable amount of money" for its new hospice, the Nook, when sold.