A 6-year old boy from the United Kingdom might have just made history after finding a fossil that could very well be almost 500 million years old. Siddak Singh Jhamat, otherwise called Sid, had been digging up the garden in his backyard with his simple fossil-hunting kit that he had received as a gift, when it would work better than any official fossil hunting kit could.
Sid, who lives with his parents Vish Singh and Sangeeta Tutt in Walsall, has always had a fascination with rocks and fossils, as most children his age, but he was soon going to realize that his discovery was going to put him in the spotlight.
Sid’s father shared with The Sun, “After school on Monday he had dug up a massive piece of grass and he took it upon himself to cut a chunk out of it. He ran inside to where I was cooking dinner and said ‘Daddy I think I’ve found something’.”
He continued, “I went out and it looked like a claw and I thought it was a got horn when I looked at it. It looked like a farm animal horn.”
Sid explained, “I can’t believe I really found it just in our garden. I was just digging a hole with my spade and I came across these fossils. I accidentally went over the grass and that’s where I found it.”
He added, “We washed them up and then my dad helped me to research what it was. I don’t know what it is but I’m really excited to find out. It’s really interesting.”
The boy’s father also told BBC that after they pulled the fossil out of the ground, he was able to identify it from a Facebook fossil group as a horn corral that actually dates back as far as an astonishing 251 to 488 million years. And a number of the fossil enthusiasts were also quick to praise the boy for such an incredible find.
Sid also shared, “I was just digging for worms and things like pottery and bricks and I just came across this rock which looked a bit like a horn, and thought it could be a tooth or a claw or a horn, but it was actually a piece of coral which is called horn coral. I was really excited about what it really was.”
Mr. Singh also said, “He’s really chuffed by it. He finds it all really fascinating.”
He reiterated, “We were surprised he found something so odd-shaped in the soil… he found a horn coral, and some smaller pieces next to it, then the next day he went digging again and found a congealed block of sand.”
“In that there were loads of little mollusks and sea shells, and something called a crinoid, which is like a tentacle of a squid, so it’s quite a prehistoric thing,” he added.
And because of the particular and distinct markings that they observed on the fossil, Sid’s father believes that it’s a Rugosa coral, which is what could make it a 488-million year old fossil.
Mr. Singh cites, “The period that they existed from was between 500 and 251 million years ago, the Paleozoic Era. England at the time was part of Pangea, a landmass of continents. England was all underwater as well… that’s quite significant expanse of time.”
The family went on to explain further that where they live isn’t necessarily known to be an area full of fossils, unlike the more popular area known as Jurassic Coast in the south of England. Yet where they live is known to have loads of natural clay, which is where little Sid had found the fossils.
Mr. Singh went on to say, “We don’t understand where this fossil could have possibly come from – we live nowhere near the sea. Someone said it might have been in the clay which over time has brought these fossils to the surface.”
He also said, “Lots and lots of people have commented on how amazing it is to find something in the back garden. They say you can find fossils anywhere if you look carefully enough, but to find a significantly large piece like that is quite unique.”
In fact, Siddak is such an avid fossil finder, the family had even gone to Lyme Regis on holiday last year just to go fossil hunting. While they were there, they managed to find an ammonite fossil on the beach. Mr. Singh even commented, “It’s been really excited especially given the lockdown.”
He concluded, “He will inevitably now try to dig up the rest of the lawn.” But if that means finding more fossils that date back millions of years, it might actually be worth it.
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