Joe Davis was walking in RutlandEngland's smallest county. Today, it is over 30 miles from the coast, but 300 million years ago, it was covered in shallow ocean. Water Nature Reserve when he noticed something strange poking out of the mud. At first, he thought it was a formation of rocks. Up close, though, it looked like something very different - vertebrae.

David rang his local council and said: "I think I've found a dinosaurThe difference between dinosaurs and reptiles is not always clear-cut, but dinosaurs were generally two-legged creatures that walked upright.."

It was not a dinosaur. Instead, it was a 32-foot ichthyosaurThe name combines the Greek words for fish and lizard, though in fact the creature is neither. - otherwise known as a "sea dragon" because of its huge eyes and teeth. It is the largest and most complete skeleton ever found in the UK.

The first person to find an ichthyosaur was Mary Anning in 1811. She was only 12 years old at the time. She and her brother spent time on the beach finding fossils and selling them.

Mary made other important discoveries. She uncovered the first pterodactylA flying reptile with a long head and neck.   outside Germany. But because she was a woman with little education, she got very little credit at the time.

Today, we make exciting discoveries all the time. Building a new railway across England has uncovered 100 historical sites. One was a whole Roman town. In 2019, one man found Saxon treasure in a field in Wales.

Some say it is a mistake to be obsessed with the past. And archaeology is not always as noble as it seems. In 1912 a hoaxer fooled experts into thinking that he had found the remains of an early ancestor, Piltdown ManThe find consisted of five fragments of skull which had been stained to make them look old..

But others say without archaeologists, this history could be lost forever. Unless we piece the past together, we can never understand how we came to be what we are.

Yes: Every discovery, however small, adds to the store of human knowledge, and we can never know too much about the past. Fossils remind us that our own history is short by comparison.  

No: We do not accomplish anything by looking backwards. It is the people who are focused on the future who come up with the inventions that drive human progress.

Or..? Any sensible person is interested in both the past and the future. We can learn valuable lessons from ancient objects, and expand our minds by imagining what is yet to come.