11-Year-Old Finds 1.8-Million-Year-Old Elephant Tooth on Suffolk Beach
Updated
Updated · SportsChosun · Jun 29
11-Year-Old Finds 1.8-Million-Year-Old Elephant Tooth on Suffolk Beach
2 articles · Updated · SportsChosun · Jun 29
Summary
Charlie Orchard Risl, 11, spotted a stone-like object on East Lane Beach in Suffolk that experts later confirmed was a fossilized upper left molar from Anancus arvernensis.
1.8 million years old and about 10 cm wide, the tooth retained relatively well-preserved enamel after long mineralization, making it an unusually intact large-mammal fossil for a public beach find.
Natural History Museum experts said coastal erosion likely broke the molar from a rock layer and waves washed it onto the shore, where England's east coast often exposes ancient remains.
Anancus arvernensis lived across Europe and western Asia about 2 million to 1.5 million years ago and was related to today's African elephant, underscoring the rarity of the Suffolk discovery.