Sir David Attenborough once mused that finding a 150-million-year-old shiny shell is 'nothing more magical' - which is precisely why senior museum figures are now petitioning to give fossils the same legal protections as a Turner painting. Under the Waverley criteria, which govern the export of culturally significant objects, natural treasures only count if they're 'made'. So a fossil, being decidedly unmade, is about as protected as a pebble on a beach.

This push comes hot on the heels of a private collection from the Jurassic Coast being sold to the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi for a reported eight-figure sum. The Natural History Museum in London and Amgueddfa Cymru (Museum Wales) were both offered the 318 fossils but, alas, their piggy banks came up short. Unlike Brazil and Mongolia, where fossils belong to the state, Britain relies on a voluntary code of conduct - because nothing says 'protect our heritage' like a polite suggestion.

So, while the super-rich snap up prehistoric curiosities and foreign museums flex their checkbooks, Britain's fossils remain in legal limbo, waiting for the day they're deemed worthy of the same respect as a dusty old portrait. Until then, if you've got a spare eight figures, there's a lovely ichthyosaur with your name on it.