WHILE DIGGING IN HIS YARD, A YOUNG BOY FINDS A 140 MILLION-YEAR-OLD MARINE FOSSIL
After just three months in his new house in Matlock, Derbyshire, seven-year-old Elliott made an amazing discovery. He and his dad were digging in his front lawn when they discovered several limestone boulders and cracked them open. As it turns out, they were brimming with Jurassic-era marine life.
The fossils date back at least 140 million years, and depict ammonites, their coiled shells embedded in the stone with exquisite detail. “I love fossils. It made me really happy that we just found it,” Elliott told the BBC. “Finding fossils is really inspiring and I want to do it more. They look so cool.”
Elliott’s mom, Gemma, was equally thrilled, admitting, “It’s very exciting what he’s finding.” She did joke that the family should avoid “digging up the garden so much,” but ultimately says, “I’m very proud of him.”
Dr. Susannah Lydon, a palaeontologist at the University of Nottingham, claims that although fossils are among the most amazing treasures in the world, they are really more prevalent in the United Kingdom than most people realise. "The majority of our fossils in the United Kingdom are concealed by flora, meaning the rocks they are in aren't exposed by erosion or near the surface," she says. "The best spots are usually along the coast, where rocks are eroded."
More than 330 million years ago, water flooded the county town of Matlock. The region looked like a tropical island back then, with coral reefs home to extinct fish, clams, and sea lily species. Matlock's home county of Derbyshire is especially well-known for its tiny brachiopod and crinoid fossils, which frequently show up on the nearby limestone cliffs. Because ammonites are much more prevalent in Dorset, Lydon thinks that Elliott's specific fossils were probably carried there by builders or collectors.
“The joy of fossil hunting is finding something that nothing else has seen for millions of years,” Lydon concludes. “It gives you a view through all those years.”