It was supposed to be a routine day of maintenance on the reservoir 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. Joe Davis noticed something poking out of the ground. At first, it looked like a collection of rocks in a row. But on closer examination they looked far more interesting. They were large vertebraeThe bones that make up the backbone..

Joe rang up the local council. "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.," he said.

The skeleton was not, in fact, a dinosaur's. But it did belong to a huge dolphin-like creature called an 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 large eyes and teeth. It is the largest and most complete fossil of its kind ever found in Britain.

According to one archaeologist leading the dig, "it is a truly unprecedented discovery". 

The first ichthyosaur skeleton was found in 1811 by a 12-year-old girl, Mary Anning, and her brother Joseph. They lived in a part of Dorset now known as the Jurassic Coast. Growing up, Mary learnt about fossils from her father. She collected them and sold them to help her struggling family. 

In 1823, Mary found the first complete skeleton of a plesiosaurusA large marine reptile with a long neck and a turtle-like body.  , and in 1828 the first pterodactylA flying reptile with a long head and neck.   discovered outside of Germany. But because she was a woman and had little formal education, she was not given the credit she deserved.  

In our own time, exciting discoveries are made all the time. A new railway line has led to the discovery of hundreds of sites. One is a large Roman town filled with pottery and jewellery. In 2019, an amateur metal-detectorist found a Saxon treasure hoard in a Welsh field. 

These discoveries highlight the sheer amount of history that lies beneath our feet.  

Excavating the past often comes with accusations of dishonesty. When Mary Anning discovered the plesiosaurus, it looked so weird that some people dismissed it as a fake. 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..     

Some believe that it is vital to look to the future instead of becoming obsessed with the past. But unless we piece the past together accurately, we can never understand how we came to be what we are now.

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.