Rare fossil unearthed at Lyme Regis Fossil Festival

James, from Wareham in Dorset, found a rare mammal tooth in sand brought for the Natural History Museum activities at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival.

The festival took place on Saturday, June 8 and Sunday, June 9 welcoming more than 10,000 visitors. 

It was identified as belonging to a prototomus - a meat-eating animal similar in size to a size of a weasel or mongoose.

Fiona and James Okai with the fossil discovery (Image: © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London)

The Natural History Museum’s stand at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival offered visitors the chance to sift through sand from Abbey Wood in southeast London in the hunt for tiny fossils.

The site is renowned for ancient remains from the start of the Eocene, a time when many modern mammal lineages have their origins.

More than 500 people who sifted through the soil at the National History Museum stand at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival (Image: © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London)

James Okai, was one of more than 500 people who sifted through the soil. He found shells and shark teeth but the molar tooth could not be immediately identified.

Dr Adams, curator of fossil mammals at the Natural History Museum, identified the find, which has now been donated to the museum. 

Rare prototomus tooth (Image: © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London)

The small predator lived more than 55 million years ago. It belonged to a group of animals known as the hyaenodonts. 

Fossils are often the topic of conversation around Dorset, making national headlines last year when the fossil of a 150-million-year-old skull was found on a beach near Kimmeridge Bay.

The fossil became the subject of a David Attenborough documentary - Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster.