A THIRTEEN year old boy is “jumping for joy” after making a huge discovery while on his holidays in Walton.
Fossil-obsessed Ben Evans and his dad Jason made their fourth visit to Walton at the end of July.
From Hemel Hempstead, they first visited the area after reading online about high volumes of shark teeth and fossils available to find.
In previous visits, Ben has built up a collection of around 100 small shark teeth.
Their latest trip, however, brought a discovery on a much larger scale as Ben unearthed a megalodon tooth.
A megalodon tooth typically comes from larger sharks and usually has wear and tear from its feeding.
Jason said: “We arrived on Friday evening, did three miles worth of walking and 12-14 miles on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
“We walked backwards and forwards up and down the beaches and found the rock underneath the Naze tower – he crawled into a very small hole to retrieve it.
“We took it up to the Essex Wildlife Trust – they had a quick look, took a photo, and assessed it would be about ten million years old.”
Ben has had an interest in fossils from an early age.
Jason said: “When he was younger, we took him to Jurassic Coast. He started getting into fossils.
“He found a couple of shark teeth – with the school, he got into the shark teeth.
“[We came to] Walton as it was somewhere that had shark teeth rather than fossils.
“When I ask where he wants to go, he suggests here.
“We come down, camp in the van for three days. We normally do Friday-Monday.
“He finds hundreds of tiny shark teeth.”
Although Ben is no stranger to finding shark teeth, the megalodon tooth is now the prize of his collection.
Jason said: “According to him, they don’t come along too often; they’re few and far between.
“[The tiny shark teeth] all came from Walton – from the pier down to the Naze Tower.
“The big one came from the rocks underneath the Naze tower.
“Those little ones are quite easy to find, you just need to have good eyesight and time it correctly with the tides.”
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