Gran writes tale of Knysna dinosaur tooth

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KNYSNA NEWS AND VIDEO - Knysna learner Ben Ingel became famous earlier this year when he found the tooth of a dinosaur, which experts believe came from the Allosaurus family.

Ben's fame has now been immortalised in a book.

Ingel's find in February was very significant and attracted wide attention from experts in South Africa and overseas since it presented the first concrete evidence of dinosaurs having once roamed this area.

The Oakhill learner found this tooth two years before it was finally analysed and found to be about 120 to 140-million years old. At first, when he found the tooth on a beach near his grandfather Vernon Rice's home on the Western Head, he was the only one absolutely convinced from the moment he found it that it belonged to a dinosaur.

The tooth stayed put for two years until eventually his nagging about paid off.

Grandfather Rice explained:

"Ben kept on telling us, his grandmother Janet and his mom Nikki Ingel, that it was a dinosaur tooth and not plastic as we thought, so I decided it was time to do something about it."

Watch a video below.

Rice invited his friends, geologists Drs Robert Muir and Rodger Schoon to have a look, as well as his bridge pal, geologist Clyde Mallinson.

According to Rice, "Robert's eyes boggled and he said straight away that the find was a dinosaur tooth."

From that moment on, Ben's find took an exciting turn of events.

On 4 February, Ben and his grandfather spent hours at the Albany Museum while palaeontologists Drs Billy de Klerk and Robert Gess shed more light on the tooth.

What became clear is that dinosaurs, which became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period 60-million years ago, lived in Knysna.

Ben was asked to surrender the tooth to the Albany Museum, where it is now for further investigation and for safekeeping.

Professor Jonah Choiniere, who is a reader at the evolutionary studies institute at Wits University, and Christopher Hendrickx from Belgium, a world-renown expert on dinosaurs, were all involved in identifying the tooth.

The next step in the investigation of this first dinosaur find in the Knysna basin, was to find more evidence.

A team of experts was due to converge on the secret spot where Ben found the tooth at the weekend following the fires of 7 June fires, but this was not to be – and will be rescheduled.

However, since the find of the tooth, Ben's grandmother Janet Rice has written a book a book which was illustrated by Shan Fischer. Entitled A True Story… Dinosaurs in Knysna?, the 31-page book tells and illustrates the story.

Janet was raised and schooled in Cape Town. She is a psychologist by profession, who spent much of her working life in Johannesburg, but she has been living in Knysna for the past 28 years.

"This is a true story, documenting an account of Knysna's first dinosaur find – an actual dinosaur tooth found by Ben, who as a small boy, spent a large part of his life playing at 'hunting dinosaurs," is the introduction.

"One day at the age eleven and whilst on the beach swimming and playing with his cousins, Ben found the impossible – a dinosaur tooth. He showed the tooth to Granny who pronounced it to be some sort of plastic part of a child's toy – but Grandpa, who was more convinced that it might indeed be something 'special', popped it into his bedside drawer for safekeeping.

"Two years later, and after searching and trawling the internet for supporting evidence Ben, who remained convinced his 'find' was authentic, badgered Grandpa about the tooth once again… Grandpa thus contacted a couple of geologist friends – and the rest is history, in the true sense of the word," writes Janet.

She explains that she wrote the book one Sunday afternoon. "I had been jotting down notes, but sat down, and because I type so fast the words just rolled," says Janet. Nobody knew about the book until it was published and it was a total surprise to Ben. "When I showed it to him, and he had no idea I was doing this, he sat down, saw his photo on the back page and said, 'Granny, what have you done now'.'"

This is a delightful book creatively illustrated and also a history of Knysna.

Oakhill School has been gifted 100 books by Janet, who says this is to thank them for "being so supportive and kind" to Ben.

Details will be given soon about where the book will be sold.

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