Having a peaceful stroll on a beach is meant to be just that—peaceful. I don't think many people think they're going to find an archaeological treasure when they're trying to relax.
Well, in any case, that's what one 11-year-old boy had the pleasure of finding. As reported by the New York Post, Charlie Orchard-Lisle was walking on the East Lane beach in Bawdsey. It's a small village in Suffolk, in the southeast of England.
His mom, Eleanor, recalled, "We were walking along and could see this thing by the lapping waves. It must have been quite distinctive because it caught both our eyes—we could tell it was something different, it had a different feel to it."
And, in a strange turn of events, he was just talking about how much he loved elephants when he spotted the strange object.
It certainly looks pretty gnarly. The tooth measures in at around four inches long, and has spots of red and blue where it's mineralized over millions of years. The enamel on the tooth was intact, too.
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Paleontologists Analyzed the Ancient Elephant Tooth
And it turns out their find was pretty darn extraordinary.
Paleontology professor Adrian Lister of London's Natural History Museum took a look at the find and determined it was an upper left molar of an Anancus avernensis.
It's an ancient and now-extinct relative of the African bush elephant. He determined the find was around two million years old.
And it's a really good thing that tooth was big—the Anancus definitely needed it! According to research, the elephant was a "browser".
That means its diet consisted of "twigs, barks, seeds, and fruits". I don't see myself being able to chew through bark or twigs, so the sheer size of the tooth must have been helpful...
And we're not the only surprised ones—Eleanor expressed her shock. "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 mused.
Well, you'll be seeing me on the beach in the next few days with my eyes peeled... I'd like an elephant tooth of my own, please!
