A 22-year-old fossil hunter just found a ‘golden cannonball’ dating back over 180 million years as he explored a Yorkshire coastline.
Aaron Smith hunts for fossils two times a week and he was thrilled when he discovered the golden cannonball while strolling down Sandsend Beach in Whitby.
The student claimed the fossil he found is a 185 million-year-old Eleganticeras and is from the Jet Rock Shales of the Upper Lias in the Lower Jurassic period.
In his video, Aaron held the shining cannonball-shaped rock and opened it up to reveal the astonishing palm-sized Elegantericeras inside before closing it again.
He also said that the limestone of the ball was naturally coated in iron pyrite, also known as fool’s gold. He has since given it a good polish to keep it shining.
The history buff shared the video and wrote: “Here’s a video of us opening one of our huge Cannon Ball fossils.
“The limestone nodule (rock) 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 [sic]!
“This particular prestigious example is found only once every few years.”
Aaron also said: “Generally when people see the video, or see these fossils in real life, they absolutely adore them.
“They love them much more than our marine reptile fossils in many cases which is quite annoying because the marine reptiles are my favourite.
“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.”
Aaron also said: “Often we can tell that a rock contains a fossil because you can see the edge of the fossil around the outside of the rock.”
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