Girl Finds Rare Fossil While Digging With Plastic Shovel

On her first archaeological dig, 5-year-old Emily Baldry found a rare 130 pound fossil at Cotswold Water park in England. Emily had only been digging for a few minutes when she hit the 160 million-year-old fossilised Rieneckia ammonite, which has a spiral shell and spikes. “To give you some idea of how rare this is, I have been looking for these for around 25 years — and have only ever found three,” says palaeontologist Neville Hollingworth. “This is also the biggest of its type that I have ever seen … It is all the more remarkable considering Emily was using the type of spade children dig with at the seaside.”