A fossil hunter has found a 185 million-year-old fossil inside a golden cannonball rock on a beach in Yorkshire.
Watch the rare 185 million-year-old fossil inside a golden cannonball
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22-year-old Aaron Smith was exploring Sandsend Beach in Yorkshire when he spotted a golden cannonball rock.
Smith is a medical student who regularly finds fossils and adds to his collection at home.
When he spotted the cannonball rock, which was coated in iron pyrite, he knew it contained a fossil.
He filmed the moment he opened the golden cannonball rock and there was a spiral-shaped fossil.
He shared the video online with the caption: ‘Here’s a video of us opening one of our huge Cannon Ball fossils. The limestone nodule is coated in Iron Pyrite, meaning we can polish it to become Golden, seen in our previous videos.’
‘It still impresses me that these 185 Million-Year-Old fossils are along our beautiful Yorkshire Coastline waiting to be found.’
Smith, who regularly finds fossils and add to his collection at home, said that he goes fossil hunting twice a week and his dad was also passionate about fossil hunting.
He said: “I go fossil hunting twice a week when I’m at home from university. Fossil hunting is a hobby of mine, or perhaps more like a serious passion. I got into it because my dad was very interested in fishing and fossil hunting too so we had lots of exposure to this amazing coast [to find fossils].”
“I remember very distinctly searching for our very first ammonite, when we cracked it open we were all so excited! This lit the fire for our future passion to develop. Often we can tell that rock contains a fossil because you can see the edge of the fossil around the outside of the rock.”
Fossils can be found anywhere and some of the best areas for fossil hunting are the Yorkshire coast, Whitby, Port Mulgrave, and Robin Hood’s Bay.
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