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THIS OBJECT IS PART OF THE PROJECT 'A HISTORY OF CORNWALL IN 100 OBJECTS'.

BUDE, THE CASTLE. Three hundred million years ago the Earth was in titanic upheaval with Africa crashing into Europe at the speed finger nails grow. The colossal pinching of these two land masses created a super lake stretching 1000s of kilometres - east to west and hundreds of kilometres north to south. Over time this salt water freshened and became known as Lake Bude.

In the 1930s, the remains of a fossil fish were discovered in the unique Bude Rock Formation. The fossil was classified as a new species and named Cornuboniscus Budensis. Sardine-sized, [4-7cm] and armed with razor sharp teeth like a Piranha,
Cornuboniscus Budensis probably fed on little crabs using its needle-like teeth to pierce the crabs' shells.

Bude's fossil fish is found nowhere else in the world and what makes it even more unique is that is has only ever been found in one bed of rock 1300mm thick and in only one location in Bude.