Knysna pupil discovers Dinosaur tooth
It is the first dinosaur fossil found in Knysna and is thought to have come from a 'massive, meat-eating dinosaur' from the Allosaurus family.
Ben Ingel who has made history by finding the tooth of a 120-million-year-old dinosaur. Photo: Elaine King
A 13-year-old learner from Oakhill School in Knysna, Western Cape, found a tooth belonging to a dinosaur, which experts estimate to be about 120 million years old.
Until Ben Ingel’s find was verified by an expert at The Albany Museum in Grahamstown on the weekend, he had been holding on to the tooth for two years, waiting for the moment it would be officially identified as a dinosaur tooth, Knysna Plett Herald reported.
People told Ben the tooth was plastic and never believed it was possible his find in a clay stone on the beach, near the Knysna Featherbed, would be historically significant.
The boy’s grandfather, Vernon Rice, always believed Ben, and so it came to be that this weekend the tooth found its rightful place in history.
It is the first dinosaur fossil found in Knysna and is thought to have come from a “massive, meat-eating dinosaur” from the Allosaurus family, which would have existed during the Cretacean period in history – just before dinosaurs became extinct.
Paleontologists in South Africa are eager to further analyse the tooth, while experts from as far as Belgium are coming to South Africa to research Ben’s find.
The Albany Museum, situated in Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape, is affiliated to Rhodes University and dates back to 1855, making it the second oldest museum in South Africa.
– Caxton News Service
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