Boy, 10, finds 90 million-year-old fossil in footpath stone
A boy has somehow managed to find a 90 million-year-old fossil embedded in a footpath that could give rare insights into the future of our marine life.
The 10-year-old stumbled across the fossil at the Monastery of La Candelaria in Ráquira, Colombia about three years ago, according to National Geographic.
The child spotted a fish fossil on a stone paver then took the image to a nearby Paleontological Research Centre to have it confirmed. The scientists notified researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada, who determined the boy had found an ancient species of fish, which had never been seen in the Americas.
The monastery was used in the 17th century by Augustine monks but now houses a museum and a chapel along with a courtyard. It also has a hotel.
About 20 years ago, the walkways were rebuilt using stones from an Andean quarry about 30 minutes away. University of Alberta researchers tracked the stone the fossil - confirmed to be a lizard fish - was found in back to that quarry.
The quarry is now being investigated further.
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Researcher Javier Luque, who co-authored some of the find in The Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, said the quarry's existence was "unknown" to researchers and the lizard fish fossil was "completely out of context" to that area.
It's believed the lizard fish, which grew to 40cm long, may have swum through waters in South America 90 million years ago, and preyed on smaller animals.
The find has given researchers insight into how fish migrated throughout the ocean and what they might do given the changing environment and rising water temperatures.
The palaeontologists are hoping to touch base with the boy to credit him with the find.
