An international team of scientists led by the University of Leicester has discovered a new 430 million-year-old fossil and has named it in honour of Sir David Attenborough – who grew up on the University campus.
The fossil is named Cascolus ravitis in honour of Sir David, who grew up on University College Leicester campus (the forerunner of the University), in celebration of his 90th birthday. Cascolus is derived from castrum meaning ‘stronghold’ and colus, ‘dwelling in’, alluding to the Old English source for the surname Attenborough; while ‘ravitis” is a combination of Ratae - the Roman name for Leicester - ‘vita’, life, and ‘commeatis’, a messenger.
This was handed over to David at the recent Alumni Dinner.
This film was produced by Marketing and Student Recruitment at the University of Leicester.
Filmed and Edited by Hayley Evans Produced by Amy Cory
This is looking at the animal from the front. There are the eyes.
These are the...
Well, the biggest compliment that a biologist or a paleontologist can pay to another one
is to name a fossil in his honour.
And I take this as a very great compliment.
I mean, I'm kind enough to think I was once a scientist,
but I've left these things behind, science behind.
So I'm very honoured and flattered that the professor should say such nice things about me now.
I mean, kids collect things, and I collected things.
And if you live in Leicester, on the eastern side of the county,
the limestone rocks, the ironstone, are full of marvellous, beautiful fossil ammonites and benamnites
and brachiopods and so on.
And that's where I learnt about geological and biological classification.
I collect all these things.
And just as it might have been stamps, I collect stamps as well,
but people who know when you collect stamps, you will see what the difference is in the colour or something.
When you do that with fossils, you begin to learn something about the way in which classification,
which is the basis of our knowledge, how it works.
And I'm fascinated by it.
And that was the Jurassic, which is rather later than these,
by about 100 million of years, that sort of thing.
