Fossil hunter finds 185-million-year-old ‘golden snitch’ with ancient sea creature inside
QUIDDITCH ball shaped fossils are just some of the many discoveries that have been made by amateur archaeologist Aaron Smith.
The medical student has found several fossils that date back to the Jurassic period on the beaches of Whitby in Yorkshire.
Perhaps the most spectacular is a 185 million-year-old fossil encased by what looks like a 'golden canon' ball.
It is technically a rock that is coated in iron pyrite, also known as 'fools gold', and if you shine this material, just like Smith did, then it turns shiny and gold.
The phenomenal piece of history is thought to be 185 million-years-old and was found on Sandsend Beach.
Mr Smith, 23, is a seasoned fossil collector and continues to go and explore the seaside in hope of finding similar treasures.
He said: “In order to find fossils, pretty much anywhere in the world, you just need to put in a lot of dedication!
"The majority of the time there is nothing really to be found but every now and again, if you’re lucky enough, and something has appeared due to a storm for example, then you might find a rock with a fossil inside it.
“When you find a fossil, then the long intricate process begins of carefully removing the stone to expose the fossil, this can take hundreds of hours in many cases.
“It’s very exciting discovering the fossils. It makes it all worthwhile after spending months of searching.”
When the medical student opened up one of his freshly shined piece of iron pyrite he found spiral-shaped cleviceras fossils.
Cleviceras are an extinct type of cephalopod creature.
The best known cephalopods today are probably squids and octopuses.
The golden-snitch-like spheres with a limestone core are actually common along the Yorkshire coastline and can be found amongst the stones and shales.
Mr Smith has previously posted a video of the golden-snitch fossil online and captioned it: "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."
A timeline of life on Earth
The history of the planet in years...
- 4.6billion years ago – the origin of Earth
- 3.8billion years ago – first life appears on Earth
- 2.1billion years ago – lifeforms made up of multiple cells evolve
- 1.5billion years ago – eukaryotes, which are cells that contain a nucleus inside of their membranes, emerge
- 550million years ago – first arthropods evolve
- 530million years ago – first fish appear
- 470million years ago – first land plants appear
- 380million years ago – forests emerge on Earth
- 370million years ago – first amphibians emerge from the water onto land
- 320million years ago – earliest reptiles evolve
- 230million years ago – dinosaurs evolve
- 200million years ago – mammals appear
- 150million years ago – earliest birds evolve
- 130million years ago – first flowering plants
- 100million years ago – earliest bees
- 55million years ago – hares and rabbits appear
- 30million years ago – first cats evolve
- 20million years ago – great apes evolve
- 7million years ago –first human ancestors appear
- 2million years ago – Homo erectus appears
- 300,000 years ago – Homo sapiens evolves
- 50,000 years ago – Eurasia and Oceania colonised
- 40,000 years ago – Neandethal extinction
In other news, archaeologists think the ‘original Bigfoot’ was giant ape twice the size of a human that roamed Earth two million years ago.
Hitler's secret vegetable garden has been uncovered at a Poland bunker.
And, the face of a 1,000-year-old Viking warrior woman with a gruesome battle wound across her skull has been revealed.
What do you make of this ancient 'golden snitch'? Let us know in the comments...
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