Telford youngster finds fossil in her garden

Rosie Howard was playing in the gravel of the garden at her home in Bembridge, Brookside, when she found what she recognised as a fossil.

Rosie's mum, Catherine, said they had sought internet counsel on what the mysterious object was, with the 'Fossil Identification UK' group coming up with the answer – it is likely to be what is known as a 'horn coral'.

Catherine explained how her daughter had found the object while they were cleaning up in the garden.

She said: "We were just pottering around the garden tidying up and she said 'I've found a fossil', I said 'that's nice' as you do, then realised it was."

Catherine said the discovery had come at an opportune time with Rosie's interest piqued after studying dinosaurs in the past few weeks at school.

She said: "The funny thing is they have just been learning about dinosaurs at school.

"She found it on the Thursday and took it into school on the Friday – perfect timing."

She added: "She was really excited and when I said to her that people on Facebook said it was an actual fossil her face just lit up.

"She has got this habit of always finding pretty stones but I didn't think anything of it when she found it then realised what she had found."

The fossils come from corals called Rugosa, believed to exist during Ordovician Period, which began 488 million years ago, and continued through the Permian Period, which ended around 251 million years ago.