FISHERMEN on the Severn Estuary stumbled across something which had been waiting to be found for millions of years.

Black Rock Lave Net Fishery secretary Martin Morgan is no stranger to finding weird and wonderful items on the estuary.

However, this latest find might just be the oldest.

Mr Morgan came across a fossilised ammonite, a type of ancient cephalopod similar to the modern day nautilus, while investigating what turned out to be an ordinary stick.

They are thought to have been around during the Permian period, which ended in the largest mass extinction the Earth has ever known, and began about 299 million years ago.

Over the years, the fishermen at Black Rock have found ancient aurochs horns, wartime shrapnel and ordnance and Roman pottery.

However, this find eclipses them all in terms of the time it has been waiting to be found.