Four-year-old Eli Ferris from Newtown is a little boy on the look-out for answers.

Eli spotted something on a wall near the town’s All Saints Church while he was out enjoying a walk with his family.

Dad Carl said: “He started shouting ‘fossil, fossil’ and pointing at the wall.

“We stopped and had a closer look and came across a pattern in the wall which looks a lot like a fossil.

“Eli has not stopped talking about and it would be great to find out where the stone was quarried for the walls just so we can tell him more about it.”

Llandrindod Wells palaeontologist Dr Joe Botting confirmed that Eli found a fossil, which is also known a cross-section through a rugose coral from the Carboniferous (around 350 million years) or Silurian ( around 430 million years).

County Times: Eli Ferris, four, from Newtown found a fossil near All Saints Church in Commercial Street.

"As far as I'm aware, you don't get any similar corals, at least not of this size, in the local area, suggesting that the stone for the wall came from somewhere else," he added.

Eli said: "I knew what it was when I saw it because my dad had shown me pictures of fossils in books. I am really happy to have found a fossil and will keep on looking for more."

Mid Wales Geology Club, based in Newtown, said: "It is always nice to hear about the next generation of palaeontologists coming along!"