By Victoria Bell For Mailonline
Published: 12:57 GMT, 4 February 2019 | Updated: 13:17 GMT, 4 February 2019
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A fossil hunter has uncovered a 185 million-year-old fossil after cracking open a 'golden cannonball' rock on a beach in Yorkshire.
Aaron Smith, 22, spotted the rock which was coated in iron pyrite, while exploring Sandsend Beach.
A seasoned fossil collector, Mr Smith suspected that the rock contained a fossil from its glossy appearance.
Footage shows the medical student opening the cannonball-shaped stone to reveal the spiral-shaped cleviceras fossil - a form of ammonite - inside, before closing it up again.
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A fossil hunter has uncovered a 185-year-old fossil after cracking open a 'golden cannonball' limestone rock on a beach in Yorkshire. Aaron Smith spotted the rock coated in iron pyrite while exploring Sandsend Beach and realised it showed signs that it contained a fossil
Pyritic concretions, known as 'cannon balls' can be found in shales and are common along the Yorkshire coastline.
Cleviceras are an extinct genus of cephalopod belonging to the family Hildoceritidae, which existed during the Jurassic period.
Squids and octopuses are the best known of today's cephalopods. They are rarely found as fossils because they do not have a hard shell.
Fossils like cleviceras and ammonites are commonly found inside the cannonballs' limestone core.
These specimens, most of which aren't crushed by the vast pressures generated in the fossilisation process, are perfectly preserved by the limestone.
The golden
