An amateur fossil hunter's discovery of a 200-million-year-old fish jawbone has helped solve two centuries of "confusion" over the origins of fossils across Europe, palaeontologists say.
Fossilised teeth found in rock around the Bristol Channel, along with other examples around Europe, had before been grouped together as one type of large ancient fish called Severnichthys.
The Saurichthys bone discovered at Lavernock by Bow, and which helped experts make their breakthrough, will go on display at National Museum Cardiff later in 2026.
Bow, from Bridgend, said he had been walking along the beach in the Vale of Glamorgan at low tide in the spring of 2012 when he had spotted "what looked to be a jaw".
For many years he had no idea what it was as experts were unsure, but in 2022 University of Bristol lead researcher Jacob Quinn came to see Bow's collection and went on to research the jaw.
While a fish jaw was not what Bow had hoped for, he said "it felt good" to have been part of the team that had "contributed to science".
Researchers from Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales worked with State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart and the University of Bristol, where the fossil had been sent for detailed inspection.
Quinn said the fossils found in the Bristol Channel had come from storms that had happened 200 million years ago.
By comparing the new snout with museum specimens from Britain and Europe, it provided evidence that fossils originally thought to be Severnichthys were a combination of two separate species.