In 1719, Darwin was instrumental in bringing the attention of the Royal Society to the first remains of a Jurassic reptile to be found[citation needed]: a fossilised plesiosaur, that would originally have been about three metres (9.8 ft) long.
After the strange bones it contained had been discovered, it was displayed in the garden of the local parsonage by the rector, the Rev.
Stukeley speculated on the reasons for the fossil's presence in rock, mentioning the Biblical flood: he said that it was not human, but was probably a crocodile or porpoise.
The specimen is today on display in the Natural History Museum as Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus, with the original registration number NHMUK R.1330.
It is the earliest discovered more or less complete fossil reptile skeleton in a museum collection[citation needed].