Ancient fish found on rockery
A stone that sat for 15 years in a Kent rockery has been identified as the fossilised head of an 80m-year-old fish.
The rock was found on a beach during a family holiday by Peter Parvin, 74, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Mr Parvin, a former policeman who is now deputy mayor of Maidstone, mentioned the stone in a conversation with a constituent.
The constituent said Mr Parvin should submit the rock for testing by Dr Ed Jarzembowski, a keeper of natural history at Maidstone Museum.
After analysing it, Dr Jarzembowski confirmed it was a fossil, and was "virtually indestructible" as it was preserved in flint, rather than chalk. He said it dated from the Cretaceous Period - between 145m and 65m years ago.
He said: "Quite simply it is priceless. I have shown it to other geologists and they are certain that it is absolutely a fossil. It's not a sculpture.
"It has been heavily weathered because it has sat in a rockery for so long and before that it was a beach pebble but it is certainly an 80 million-year-old fossil.
"I'm told there are a few of them in private hands, but I've never seen one before. It's quite a privilege."
Mr Parvin said: "We always bring back a stone from wherever we go on holiday, and we picked up this one because it looked like a fish head and was most unusual. I didn't think any more about it."
He could not remember exactly where he had picked it up, but said it was somewhere between Pevensey near Eastbourne, East Sussex, and Dungeness, Kent.
A stone that sat for 15 years in a Kent rockery has been identified as the fossilised head of an 80m-year-old fish.
The rock was found on a beach during a family holiday by Peter Parvin, 74, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Mr Parvin, a former policeman who is now deputy mayor of Maidstone, mentioned the stone in a conversation with a constituent.
The constituent said Mr Parvin should submit the rock for testing by Dr Ed Jarzembowski, a keeper of natural history at Maidstone Museum.
After analysing it, Dr Jarzembowski confirmed it was a fossil, and was "virtually indestructible" as it was preserved in flint, rather than chalk. He said it dated from the Cretaceous Period - between 145m and 65m years ago.
He said: "Quite simply it is priceless. I have shown it to other geologists and they are certain that it is absolutely a fossil. It's not a sculpture.
"It has been heavily weathered because it has sat in a rockery for so long and before that it was a beach pebble but it is certainly an 80 million-year-old fossil.
"I'm told there are a few of them in private hands, but I've never seen one before. It's quite a privilege."
Mr Parvin said: "We always bring back a stone from wherever we go on holiday, and we picked up this one because it looked like a fish head and was most unusual. I didn't think any more about it."
He could not remember exactly where he had picked it up, but said it was somewhere between Pevensey near Eastbourne, East Sussex, and Dungeness, Kent.
