A UNIQUE fossil preserved in incredible detail has been discovered in the county and named in honour of Sir David Attenborough.

The 430-million-year-old fossil was found in volcanic ash deposits that accumulated in a marine setting in what is now Herefordshire and was discovered by Professor David Siveter from the University of Leicester, working alongside researchers from the Universities of Oxford, Imperial College London and Yale, USA.

Academics would not confirm the exact location of the find but said the fossil has been determined as an ancient crustacean and a distant relative to lobsters, shrimps and crabs.

It has been named Cascolus ravitis in honour of Sir David who grew up on the university campus.

Professor Siveter said the animal lived in the Silurian period of geological time.

“Some 430 million years ago much of southern Britain was positioned in warm southerly subtropical latitudes, quite close to a large ancient continent of what we now call North America, and was covered by a shallow sea,” he explained.

“The crustacean and other animals living there died and were preserved when a fine volcanic ash rained down upon them.”

Such a well-preserved discovery is exciting, he added, and this one is a unique example of its kind in the fossil record and can be established as a new species.

“Even though it is relatively small, at just nine millimetres long, it preserves incredible detail including body parts that are normally not fossilised,” Professor Siveter added.

“It provides scientists with important, novel insights into the evolution of the body plan, the limbs and possible respiratory-circulatory physiology of a primitive member of one of the major groups of Crustacea.”