A family who have been fossil hunting on the Isle of Wight for some 30 years discovered a top-notch, 125million-year-old dinosaur tooth this week.
The Gearing family were on a fossil hunt organised by Jenny Hawthorn, of Island Gems, when they came across the mineralised beach-worn Iguanodon tooth on the beach at Brook.
Felicity, who led the trip, says that bits of dinosaur bone found amongst the beach pebbles are not uncommon but teeth like this are a rarity.
Martin Simpson, the Isle of Wight’s very own ‘fossil man’, has said finds like this only crop up every few years so it’s nice that regular visitors such as the Gearings get to keep a prehistoric souvenir from their Island visits.
Martin was recently featured on a Channel 5 programme with Susan Calman who found a nice piece of marcasite crystal from the same spot. Geotourism is really becoming popular on the Island. Four new dinosaur species have been announced in the last two years.
Speaking about their find, the Gearings said:
“We have spent many years fossil hunting as a family on the Isle of Wight and have been out hunting with many guides over the years. This year we brought along Nick (Rebecca’s partner) on our family holiday. This was Nick’s first-ever fossil hunt so as you can imagine, he’s very happy with his find.
“Our guide (Flick) told us what to look out for and where best to search. We are very happy to find a rare fossil and will treasure it.”
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Old dino was probably struggling to find a dentist on the Island accepting new patients even back then…..
Little has changed then..
Hope they find the islands first smackhead or idiot driver