A nine-year-old may have made the find of his life on a family trip.
Even experts are amazed at the fossil.
Birchgrove - On a beach in Wales, UK, nine-year-old Eli accidentally discovered an extraordinary fossil: a 200-million-year-old ammonite.
The boy was out with his family on Sunday when he suddenly spotted the magnificent specimen on the rocky cliff at Llantwit Major Beach.
Oh my god, that's a big deal
Eli (9) about his find on the beach
"I was sitting there looking up to see if any rocks or anything was falling and then I saw it," Eli tells the
BBC
.
"I was like, 'Oh my god, this is a big deal.'"
The ammonite on the rock face has a diameter of about 30 centimeters and is not only unusual for that reason.
Ammonite on the beach in Wales a rare find
"The fossil Eli found is an ammonite, a species of mollusk closely related to squid, squid and octopus," explains Dr.
Nick Felstead, Lecturer in Physical Geography at Swansea University, according to
the BBC
.
The fossil is rarely found in Llantwit Major, the lecturer said.
"We can see that the inner chambers that served to lift the ammonite were filled with quartz during fossilization, which is even rarer and makes this specimen particularly beautiful."
This is the moment nine-year-old Eli found a fossil while walking at the beach
It turned out to be 200 million years old 🤯https://t.co/ziIzUn5ESj pic.twitter.com/19UbPbJK7J
— BBC Wales News (@BBCWalesNews) March 30, 2023
The rocks and cliffs at Llantwit Major Beach are Jurassic and approximately 200 million years old.
The rock consists of limestone and mudstone layers, a so-called Blue Lias Formation.
Ammonites - this is how the extinct sea creatures lived
Ammonites are shelled cephalopods that died out millions of years ago.
They lived on earth until 65 million years ago.
Over 1,500 ammonite genera are known.
They became extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs.
Ammonites could probably swim using their shells.
Researchers at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) have dealt intensively with this theory.
Today only the petrified shell of ammonites is preserved.
According to the RUB, the world's largest ammonite discovered to date was found in the MĂĽnsterland chalk basin and measured about 1.75 meters.
Eli will definitely remember the Sunday trip with his parents for a long time.
Despite the fossil find, the boy later does not want to become a paleontologist.
"I want to be a footballer," the boy told the
BBC
.
Experts and marine biologists racked their brains for years about a beach find in Greece.
The mystery appears to have been solved now.
(ml)