That should be Eocene Island really for this little beauty. It's a 'scute' - a piece of body armour from a 35 million year-old crocodile called Diplocynodon! It only measures 3x2 cms and looks like burnished brass. It's absolutely beautiful.
I found it amongst the seaweed and flint (actually my youngest son found it having much sharper eyes and being much closer to the ground) whilst beach-combing down on the shoreline at the end of Fishbourne Lane on Sunday; Martin Munt, the Island's palaeontology expert from Dinosaur Isle, kindly identified it for me. I just love the fact that you can wonder around the Island's fabulous coastline and not only enjoy the view, the sea, the wildlife and the pubs, but actually stand a pretty good chance of picking up a bit of dinosaur, a prehistoric shark tooth and even some ancient crocodile skin!
Ian Boyd, Island 2000. Isle of Wight Ambassador.