It was a simple family day at the Knysa beach two years ago when Benjamin Ingel strayed away from his cousins to play along with the shore. Little did he know he would be picking up a 120 million-year-old tooth that belongs to an Allosaurus dinosaur roaming the earth during the Cretacean period.
After receiving analysis from different scientists, it was confirmed earlier this month that the piece was a historical find in South Africa as there were no records of dinosaur fossils before in the country. It surprised paleontologists around the globe that such meat-eating dinosaur would roam in Africa.
Benjamin's discovery started with an odd rock he picked up at the beach. He noticed that it was quite delicate and that the rock began to crumble at his touch.
It was then that Benjamin saw the rock's core being surrounded by an oily substance. When he further analyzed it, the rock totally disintegrated, and a tooth was discovered.
He showed it to his family who quickly said the tooth was fake or plastic. However, it was his grandfather who examined the relic and brought to his friends and some geologists to find more information regarding the tooth.
Benjamin and his grandfather were then invited to the Albany Museum in Grahamstown to have a paleontologist examine the tooth. When the results came out, all were astonished to know that it was a dinosaur tooth belonging to the famous Allosaurus species.
The tooth was the first dinosaur fossil South Africa has ever had. Even scientists hailing from Belgium are interested in getting in touch with Benjamin for them to examine the tooth as well.
The Allosaurus specie is one of the most famous theropod dinosaurs and is often most confused with the Tyrannosaurus Rex. They are often depicted in pop culture media with the famous one being in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World which was adapted into a movie years later.
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