Unexpected discovery of a 2 kg “tooth” on the beach!
After finding a huge mammoth tooth on the beach, an amateur fossil hunter is celebrating his unique discovery and his own birthday.
Chris Bean went to Holland-on-Sea in Essex, England on his birthday. He and his wife were walking on the beach when Chris stopped to sit on a rock by the water. When he looked down he noticed a wavy line pattern in the sand.
According to Faradid, 56-year-old Chris said: “I saw it protruding and I thought it must be a tooth with such a pattern. I started to push the sand away from it with my hands, but it was too deep into the ground to remove it with my hands. Mark and I had brought a garden spade with us and used it to pull out the tooth. It was completely fossilized.”
“I couldn't believe it. As we were pulling it out, I was hoping it was a mammoth tooth, but I kept telling my husband it couldn't be! “Earlier that day, I had said that I wanted to find a mammoth tooth, and I did not imagine that a moment would come when my wife and I were holding a mammoth tooth in our hands and laughing.”
The find is probably the root of a tooth and it is six and a half to seven inches deep and wide and weighs more than 4 pounds (equivalent to 2 kilograms).
After consulting online, Chris guesses that this tooth may belong to a Steppe Mammoth; One of the largest species of mammoth. They were the ancestors of woolly mammoths and lived on earth about 1.8 million years ago. Another guess is that this fossil is only half of a mammoth tooth, because only two inches of it is used for chewing and the rest is the root, meaning the rest of the parts are missing.
He plans to keep this tooth and currently has it soaked in distilled water for a few weeks. After drying, this fossilized tooth will be preserved in a cover of preservative glue and ethanol.
Chris volunteers for his local museum in Worthing and has been part of the Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society for 17 years.
The North Essex coast is known for its treasure trove of fossils. Other finds of Chris include mammoth foot and paw bones, ice age horse teeth and ankle bones.
