Science / Medicine : Fossil Hunter’s Big Day
<i> Compiled from staff and wire reports</i>
Scotland’s only commercial fossil hunter has found a 340-million-year-old lizard, 40 million years older than any other known reptile, according to the Natural History Museum in London. Stan Wood calls the 8-inch-long fossil he found “Lizzie” and wants to sell it, but said he hasn’t decided on the price.
“It is an amazing discovery--remarkable,” said Timothy Smithson of Newcastle University, who verified the find. Lizzie’s twisted skeleton is in an almost black chunk of rock. Michael Benton, a dinosaur expert from Queen’s University, Belfast, described the material as shale-like limestone. Lizzie’s age was determined by the age of the volcanic rock surrounding it. The fossil also also been tested by radioactive carbon dating.
