SUFFOLK, ENGLAND, June 29 (World Daily Times) — An 11-year-old boy walking on a beach in Suffolk, England, found a fossilized tooth that a SWNS report identified as an upper left molar from the extinct elephant relative Anancus arvernensis, measuring about 4 inches wide and dating to about 1.8 million years ago.
Charlie Orchard-Lisle found the object in May on East Lane beach in Bawdsey, near Ipswich, according to the syndicated account republished by Fox News and Getaway. The report said the family was not sure exactly where the tooth came from.
The coverage did not identify the expert or institution that dated the fossil or explain how the age estimate was made. Eleanor Orchard-Lisle suggested the tooth may have been buried in a Red Crag cliff, a fossil-rich formation along England’s eastern coast, and later exposed by erosion before washing onto the beach.
“It is quite incredible, and I can’t believe you can find something so old that existed 1.8 million years ago and then just rocks up on the beach,” she said in the SWNS account.
