Discover & Find Fossil Fish at Fossil Lake Safari in Kemmerer, WY

[Music] well I bet you're wondering what we're doing out here we are in Southwestern Wyoming and we are hunting for fossil fish this stuff right here with our buddy Matt Heaton out at the fossil lak of fari Cory Matt thank you so much for having us out yeah thanks for coming out [Music] okay so we're hammered on Rock we've got a fossil fish how does this fossil fish get here and why because I don't see a lake but you know it's it's Fossil Lake Safar where's where's the lake so the lake disappeared over 50 million years ago about 52 million years ago uh this was a lake called Fossil Lake it was uh in a warm environment probably similar to the Gulf States are now so there was crocodiles and turtles and big fish and all kinds of animals surrounding this Lake okay um it covered about 1500 square miles and this particular Quarry is near the lake shore so there was actually some Rivers coming in the lake pretty near here and what you're seeing here is what was deposited at the lake bottom over millions of years so Matt what exactly are we looking at here cuz I mean you know like I said I don't see much of a lake I mean I I see you know these epic this epic landscape so where first off where are we in Southwestern Wyoming uh so we're about 20 minutes outside the town of ker and what we're looking at over this uh Hillside is the backside of fossil but which is part of the fossil but National Monument okay so you're right adjacent to the fossil but National Monument yeah we're on the back side of it now that's a monument that aside to save a specific section of this entire formation the Green River formation correct yes uh so let's get into the life all right so what period is this uh this is uh eosine period so approximately 52 million years old okay oh gosh so this is right after the dinosaurs yeah and that's one of the reasons this the fossils from this Lake are so important is particularly the birds and the mammals that shows you where the birds and the mammals are evolving after After The Dinosaurs went extinct so let me ask you this so right after the dinosaurs extinct go extinct do we are are there any really good places to get quality fossils this close to that Extinction timeline or is this it uh this is probably one of the Premier fossil sites in the world and the reason why is there are so many articulated vertebrates most places where you find vertebrate fossils are broken up you find teeth you find individual bones but you don't find the animals fully articulated and the reason why the preservation is so good here is the bottom of the lake had a thin layer of salt water on it which that created a low oxygen environment okay and so the animals at the bottom of the lake didn't decompose scavengers couldn't get to them and they slowly got covered up over years uh by very fine sediment you're kidding I had no idea there was this salt layer at the bottom of the lake that's crazy that explains why there's so many fossil why there's just an abundance of fossils here well just about every time you split a rock boom there's a fossil yeah in most Lake beds you know if a fish dies and floats down to the bottom it's going to get eaten and torn apart yeah it's eaten it's torn apart it's scattered which sometimes you see that but almost all of the fish that you find are in perfect condition yes so what was the landscape like so the the commed came destroyed all the dinosaurs Earth is kind of rebounding this is that first period where Earth is really rebounding what does the Earth look like at this time so this particular area this would have been like uh the Gulf States Florida or Costa Rica or something like that fairly tropical um kind of warm climate you had Palms you had crocodiles you had Turtles you had papers and rhinos surrounding the lake oh wow so what kind of all right so you've we've got this tropical environment what is it that that the fossils show us about about the about life during that time what all what all kind of species are you finding here the being a lake um the vast majority of what you find is fossil fish um but because this Quarry is so close to the shore we occasionally find birds and mammals and things that died at the Lake Edge or got washed into the lake all that's so cool so you found birds and and little mammals and stuff like that yeah we found several mammals uh this year already yeah you're kidding dude that's awesome Yep they're uh currently they're being researched they may turn out to be something new they're definitely something new to this Lake system that's never been described from this Lake system you're kidding that's so epic you're finding stuff new to science here at this Corey oh yeah this I think this quy has produced about 133 holotype so far of new animals so the and just a holotype is the the the first what what that animal has been described off of It's usually the first one found um and most those new holotypes have been Birds there's been around 30 different species of birds described from this lake so when you come across something like that rare that's obviously important to science what do you do with that uh we want to make sure that do everything we can can to get it into a museum get it into an institution where it can be studied that's dude that's so awesome I mean seriously that's a great thing you guys are doing and it's a great thing not only for our knowledge and understanding of life in the es scene but you know also for the public as well because you know the public gets to come out they get to be a part of you know this discovery and then when you find something that's important to science you make sure that it gets to science so that's a win-win that's awesome yeah it this place is amazing particular families come down here it's a great family activity you kids get so excited when they open up a rock and find this fossil fish there and it kind of Sparks the you know excitement figuring out why it's here yeah gets them learning about this well let's do this let's check out your setup show us what you got here show us your operation okay all right so Matt we just arrived uh you know show us your setup so what what what do we do how do we how do we get out in that rock cord what kind of tools are we using you know what's what's your setup like okay we'll go through the process uh first let's get you checked in here okay all right so when people arrive this the this is the first building that they come to to the checkin yeah first thing they come through is uh check in uh sign the kind of standard liability waiver here okay excuse me now why do you have people sign a lot liability waiver so the liability waiver it's kind of a a standard legal thing it just says if you hurt yourself that it it's your responsibility okay no that makes sense just like in every every place okay yeah this is a a pretty safe activity As Long as You Follow some basic rules we have you know restricted areas which are restricted for a reason we don't want people going to the unstable rock wall for sure yeah I mean it seems like you've got where people are working is is really in a big Central open area where they're far away from anything that could be yeah yeah we pull down the The Rock from the wall we lay it out in rows where they can split it they don't have a rock wall over their head or anything like that yeah so after we sign the waiver what's our next step so after you sign the waiver you get your uh we'll hand you tools and the tools of the trade here all right so what kind of tools do we have thin splitting chisel they like to refer to as Green River chisel which are specially made for splitting the stone efficiency so this tool is specifically made just for splitting Rock in this formation yeah that is so cool look at that why the orange tape we have the orange tape there so people don't lose them oh yeah so they know which end to hit you because there's a lot of people if you don't put tape it they'll hit the the pointy end oh yeah we don't want to hit the pointy end okay and then we've got a I guess your standard rockhammer y okay all right we've got our tools what's next next thing is I would get your name tag you can just put history nerd I think everybody knows that's going to be all right so we've got our name tag where do we put our name tag at I'll bring a a shelf over for you put you down there here I'll get one in the the history nerd shelf all right we're going to fill it up yeah most customers in a few hours will fill up their shelf really the fossil fish are pretty prolific here here's some examples of some fossil fish just so you have an idea of kind of what you're looking for okay so this is like a sample table that shows all the different kind of things that you're that's it's possible for you to find out here like for example this is a a diplom uh Nida right there okay that's the most common one this is the most common one y what are these bigger ones back here that's uh a prisca Sera okay um and that's a fotus there's an even bigger one partially down there oh wow they got up to about 30 in long that's a huge fish that's crazy so this area that we've got so here's our Shelf and this is our pile right here yeah we have rows laid out so people um can go around and pick out the rock that they think is their special rock okay oh that's cool and break it down so I like how you've got it set up so you know there can be multiple families here at the same time you've got these great rows where people there's somebody down there who's working on a row and so you just start at one end and just work your way down for as long as you're here yeah yeah just whatever rock you want you can go around and well let's put this one up on the Shelf so walk me through the techniques what how how do we split this Rock open so the tech unque for splitting this rock is one this rock has to dry for several days after we pull it out of the wall or it does not split very well so this rock is fresh from that wall back there yeah we pulled out probably two or 3 days ago so it's been out in the sun out the wind drying to where it's going to split well so this Rock still has moisture in it when it's up in the wall yeah there is a lot of moisture in that really that rock okay and so the lack of moisture helps it split easier correct okay all right so what's next so next thing is with the rocks to split them you always want to start in the setter if you start over on the side it tends to just uh flake off and you don't get a clean split so we tell everyone to start in the center you get a a crack started here and what you want to do is you don't want to drive your chisel all the way in you would just want to follow that crack to be able to get the rock to so that way you get a nice even split okay so is that a fish scale that yes that looks like fish scale right there okay so what's neat guys is that every time you are splitting open a layer you were splitting open uh basically a scene from this Lake Bottom that's that's this big for example cuz these layers the lake Bottom was like this and sediment percolates and lays down like this over the millions of years it gets uplifted then when you rip it out of the wall you know you lay it on each side to split these these layers this way so all right so we'll take this one we'll do the same thing we'll go into the sander get a crack going just follow that crack and we got another split there oh cool so what do we have there that's weird yeah I'm not that one I'm actually not sure it might be a fish poop oh no I think that's a little vertebrae look at that yeah that does look like it that's cool so that's a little fish vertebrae who knows the fish could have gotten eaten see and that's what's crazy is is so you're you were basically opening up and looking at a story from the past this is literally an invade a page out of history with every time you split it's a brand new story so what the heck happened we've got a fish vertebrae here why is there a fish vertebrae here you know that's what makes this so much much fun is because it throws up all these crazy cool questions that you get to ask and figure out so cool all right awesome do one more here see if we sometimes you got to go around to multiple sides on the Rock to get it so you just want to slowly take your time and get a good even crack opening up yep it's this is a tech thing not a a brute Forest thing and see there's a fish over on the side of the rock this fish is almost totally buried under the rock just the head's exposed but you can see the the backbone right there and his his Tail's going to be right there oh wow so is this something let's say somebody finds this can they take it home and expose the rest of this cuz it looks like you yeah it's fairly soft rock so they can take it home and use a air scribe or a little engraver you can even do with the xacto knife and just remove that rock very slowly and there'll be a fish under there that's so cool and look what else fish poop Ah that's so cool fish poop all right well let's do this let's sit here and let's you know start going through some of this rock and see what we find does that work all right sounds good all right guys so here's what we're going to do we're all going to hang out we've got the camera on a tripod our main man Isaac who's filming and editing this episode is going to hop in here with us and what we're going to do is we're going to you know this stuff takes time so we're going to run it on Fast and we're just going to plow through this rock and see what we can find every time we find something we'll bring it up and we'll show you so hang in there hopefully in a minute we'll be finding something awesome it's not a it's not a fish but it's some scales so like we were talking about earlier you've got that that bottom of the lake and just these are all these little fish scales that popped off so it's just a little Slice of Life back here in The iene Rock's a little heavy but here we go there's our first first fish a nice little diplomas so we're going to take this fish and we're going to put it on the shelf right below the camera and we'll chop it up here in a bit so here's a a Nida it's the most common fish out here as uh both sides of it split off fortunately is right at the edge of the rock so we're missing the side of him but still a very detailed fossil fish this is fish poop so literally everything that's within the environment when it falls down to that layer is going to be in that layer so from leaves to bugs to mammals to fish to fish exr everything's going to be on the bottom Isaac did real good he just got him a really neat piece of fish if you look at it uh the fish is still underneath one more little layer but it should prep out really nice it looks like it's all there so good find Isaac sometimes you'll get stuff like this where the fish will just explode up on you but that's okay you can't save every fish so we'll just keep plowing through the Rock and see what else we can find there a half of a larger fish oh nice unfortunately it swam to the edge of the rock but that's a larger fish right there looks like a myosis messed up and exploded this one but there's one right on the edge another nice fish so you can see we're just plowing through this rock and it's just fish after fish after fish I mean you are 100% this is probably the only place where you can go where you're 100% guaranteed to find an American fossil he's right here that's awesome here's a fish right here it's just the head exposed the rest of it running Under The Rock So This Rock could uh be removed at home to expose the remainder of the fish so here's a nice fish right here uh you just see part of it exposed but the rest of it's buried under the rock Tail's probably going to be about there so it's about a 5 to 6 in fish now what's something like that worth retail uh so we have to totally prep it out get it ready in a in a rocket mineral shop what what would that fish be worth and a rock and mineral shop totally prepped uh I'm try to think see which species that is that's big Nida but it's a big one so it's probably 50 bucks no 50 bucks you're kidding you make your money back so yeah you could actually come out here and make your money back and even make a profit out yeah I would say pretty much everyone who comes if they prepped and sold their fines they'd make money that's yeah that's such a cool thing that you can do I mean it's like gold mining you know that's so cool there's always a chance they could pop out a bird withth you know 23,000 bucks and oh yeah so what's some of the rare stuff that people can find here everyone wants to find stingrays okay that's what everybody wants to find wait a minute you've got stingrays in this cor there freshwat stingrays here what that's so cool so what do those bring um you know a decent one can be anywhere from you know3 to $6,000 that's insane I think we've had about four of them pound so far this season wow yeah all right got a little small little fish right there but what's neat is is I've got the positive and the negative so I've got both of them on each side so there's another fish to the count we'll put it on our table there's a cute little fish right there was just another cute little fishy fishy fishy fishy that's cool we add that to the pile so sometimes you'll get fish that are exploded so there's one that's just all totally exploded you could see where all the scales and everything have wetted down where you know it laid on the bottom for a a little bit so another neat neat fish will add to the pile man this is a great split look at what Matt just pulled out so right there and right here so what's neat about this is so there's just one fish but we have two plates so people get positive and negatives of of things yes yeah people get positive NE most most of the splits will be where you'll have a fish on both sides sometimes they'll split and the fish will be partially buried or totally buried under the rock yeah but that's cool so you get two for one yes that's awesome nice all right sometimes all you get is just the tail but still that's a heck of a tail is that not awesome oh yes hey nice Isaac that's awesome dude so Isaac just found a killer killer fish Matt what species do we have so this is a diplomas okay it's the second most common species in here but it's that's a pretty nice one right there that's a great great DET great fish so s off the rock yeah he was wanting to swim off the rock it's kind of Addicting isn't it because you you keep splitting you keep and you don't want to stop splitting you just want to keep going and going and going yeah it is addicting okay so now we've split through a bunch what do we do with what we found here so we are for we have tile saws where uh we can cut this stuff down to whatever size you want you know we can cut it you can cut it whatever you're comfortable with but look at all these fish we found in such a short amount of time that's crazy let's go over what all we found so what do we have here so that is a a diplom myus okay you know about 5 6 in long and so something like this what you what you can do is is you can just cut it out with the rocksa yeah you can cut it into small piece if you want or you can leave it in the rock as you want as you found it and then this is kind of cool this is a twofer yeah you have a a Nidia there and you have a diplom missus right there oh that's cool so we've got two species going on side by side that's epic and then so this is really cool down here this is just one fish but it looks like two so what do we have going on here so you have a diplom myus that uh it basically split in half so you're seeing half the fish on one side half the fish on the other on this one part of his head is still buried by Rock under there mhm but that's just so cool look at the detail of these fish you can see each and every individual bone you can see the fins the head I mean that's just look you can really see the head down there I mean the detail of these specimens are just it's awesome man yeah and what's cool is is so it's technically one fish but you have two fossils now yes that's that's awesome I really don't know much else where you can you can do that so and then here's I'm proud of this one this is my little oh and then here's no foul God dang it ah Chase all right so what do we got next so when we' get these out like this what do we do okay so what we have is we have carts for bringing your finds over to the rocksaw where we can saw it down let's go grab a cart let's grab a cart I can't believe I broke my fish and are these carts that you guys specially designed just for yeah we there're uh wheelbarrows and we took the the bucket off there and did some modifications that's so cool so what we want to do is when we're taking these things over the saw we want to stack them vertically same same thing if you're transporting these things in your car is you want them stack vertically instead of horizontally that's a really good point because if you stacked them horizontally the bouncing of your car will break this rock but if you stand it up like this when you transport it it'll it won't break as easily you just Chuck my Chuck my broken fish to the side yeah all right I'll be the you tell me which way to go all right where are we going so we're going over here to the tile sauce these are saws here they're uh we've got a solar trailer here so everything out here is run off of solar oh that's awesome so everything that you guys do out here all of your electricity is solar powered yes that is so cool I've never seen a solar trailer before that's an epic setup man so yeah it's got enough batteries in there if it there was no sun for 3 days we could still run everything really and then there's a backup generator if all of that failed that will kick on so you're you're not putting any any no footprint on the environment really with with running electricity or anything like that not with run electricity yeah that's awesome okay so Matt now we wheed everything over what's our next step so our next step is we have tile saws here that people can use to trim stuff down to size okay it's part of the service we offer is we'll cut stuff for you uh we have a lot of people prefer to cut their own fish so we just are here to kind of check out make sure they know how to use the saw they're not putting their thumb right there where they're going to cut their thumb off um so yeah yeah so okay so let's cut these two now how would you go about knowing where to cut um so we wanted to make it as tight as we could you know close to as tight as we could so it's up to the customer how they want to cut this you know if they want it a big piece or a small piece um you know if you're flying on plane you probably want smaller pieces okay let's go with the smaller smaller piece so we'll put it here the Blade's going to run here it also has a laser line it'll show you where it's going to run [Music] okay that is a awesome dude look at that that is killer I mean what's so cool about this is is this was literally lost to time until about 30 minutes ago no human being had ever seen this fish until 30 minutes ago yeah and now it's prepped and ready and oh that's so awesome dude what a great experience that people can have to come out here to literally discover history a you know you're the first you well you guys are like the fourth and the fifth human being but I mean that's the first people to ever see this fossil that's just such a cool rush I can't really think of anything else that you could do to to have that so what's our next step are we good to go or is there anything else we're going to do to it uh you're good to go here nice you can take that home like it is um a lot of people you can seal these fish um so that they'll stay better preserved using a Elmer's glue and water mixture we have it sold premixed or it's just 10% Elmer's glue and just by dipping the fish in you either dip it or you paint it on all sides of the Rock and let it dry so what if we want to take this home and make sure it doesn't get Disturbed how how what's a good way to transport this uh when you transport things in your car uh these little plates are easy they're not getting a break very easy but the bigger ones you definitely want to have laying up vertically if they're laying down you know the bumps on the road can cause them to shatter but if they're up they're much more likely to survive the trip makes sense so now we've gone fishing in Wyoming this is awesome dude so these aren't the only layers that you have here you guys have what's called Mass mortality layers correct yeah there's a couple very specific layers in the Quarry which are mass mortality it was basically a fish kill it might have been caused by algal bloom like currently happens nowadays yeah or it could have been volcanic eruption or something so it's something that completely killed all life in the in the lake yes that's crazy and so and you pretty much know where those layers are within the yeah we know where a few of them are some of them will extend all the way across the Quarry others you'll have a mass mortality that'll just be a section of the Quarry so it's so it's a layer of rock that you split there's going to be a ton of fish yes that you know that's pretty confident let's get can we go see it yeah so Matt how how do you know exactly where this Mass mortality layer is I mean cuz there's there's a ton of layers in the wall how do you know which one is which so this is what we call a a mud layer uh and you can actually it's very distinctive seeing on the side of the rock so this brown that's going right through yeah thin orange layer and then we have it measured you know from other layers so we can find it pretty easily in the wall okay so you guys know right where this is on the wall you keep it measured so yeah we know where it is um when we're pulling walk from the wall and laying it out it kind of gets mixed in there so you always have a chance of hitting this this mud layer I want you guys to see look down here this is this is solid see the layer this is solid solid layer so let's see what let's see what this looks like yep we want to go very carefully this has been sitting out drying for 2 or 3 days so it should should split well but we shall see just want to go very carefully with this do you have it yep I got you it split around these sides we're actually we'll get on the roll this rock so we can get the other side too okay oh actually it may be free right now yep so we do the big reveal and hopefully there's a hopefully there's a ton of fish is it Loose there may mean just a little more prying yeah we don't want to pry that but I'll get the okay try to get where it's stuck okay I'm going to roll this okay lay it down it's stuck right here he snap in half okay for it broke there but broke there all right ready oh oh whoa what holy cow look at all these fish that is awesome so you got fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish they're everywhere yeah what the heck dude look oh that's so cool look at these two died side by side that is so awesome so basically the uh the everything that was swimming in like died and fell down to the bottom of the lake correct yeah it could have been um caused by some sort of a volcanic event that killed stuff in the lake well it's a mud layer so it's probably something that deposited a lot of soft sediment all at once yeah that's epic holy cow dude that is so neat what's really cool is is is this tells the entire history of a lake that existed for millions of years all the you the normal stuff where a fish lives its normal life and dies and goes down to the very violent climactic things that happen where you have mass kill offs from volcanoes or algae or whatever and the entire Lake dies and has to rebound the entire story of the esene period is Within These layers and it's just so epic that you guys are every day exposing it and furthering our knowledge and understanding and allowing the public to come out and be a part of this that's it's just epic man that's too cool check this out guys we were just walking by and we heard some hooping and hollering and somebody was all excited Miss Sandra Robertson yeah found an epic fish what did you find a fotus look at this fish guys brought tears to my eyes yeah she got a little emotional as one would finding an epic awesome fish but look at this preservation now where are you from I'm from NE Palestine Indiana it's close to Indianapolis that's awesome and how did you hear about this that that you could go do this I have been fossil digging for over 20 years and this was on my bucket list my uh good friend Debbie bis and I do a lot of fossil digging together and we just we would read about it but it was always too far west we've done the uh um dinosaur digs and things oh cool I did find a perfect T-Rex tooth that's awesome brought tears to my eyes I would have say so you've never been fossil fishing before not fossil fishing no this is my first talk about an awesome fossil gods were here I I can't believe it's beautiful that is a gorgeous gorgeous fish look at this and remember guys this is where we say you know you get two fish for one if it splits right and just look at the detail within the fish I mean you can see all the individual rib sections the tail this is scale right the scales everything such an awesome find I mean that's pretty awesome for you you know you don't go to the to the casino do you no I don't say you ought to start this is this is it Prett good that's awesome well thank you for sharing your find with us and congratulations that's awesome it is it is yes one here's one here see that's what we're saying guys is I mean you you 100% when you come out to here this is the only thing where you're 100% guaranteed you're not only going to find something you're going to find something awesome and you're going to find something that no human being has ever seen no human being has ever seen this until you just saw it you were the first human being to ever see that that's awesome cool well thank you and good luck oh thank you very much here a big thing guys is that anybody of any age can come out here and do this you don't have to be an adult to do this Miss Sherry here has been prepping fossils for a couple of years now and she's going to show us some of the techniques on how to clip out fosses so most people hit like this but you have a bare chance of hitting your finger so you should hit on the side with the hammer so you don't hit your finger as much well will you take us out to some rock and show us how to do it yeah sometimes it will flake off but you don't you try to stay in the midle as much as possible okay so even if it splits in a different spot like the side you still want to stay middle middle middle middle and they're flaked off and this stuff is just minerals okay so you get some mineral deposit so this stuff that we're seeing here are mineral deposits yeah okay that's cool let's see if there's a fish in here yeah I want to see a fish come out and we tried to split down to a/2 in cuz last year a bird was found oh you're kidding no it it's true it's really cool that's awesome this one should be good okay let's do this one it looks way easier and after you're done you can saw your fish out we have saws over there this saw is for stuff that's too big hey there we go that's a good split yeah my dad actually works here too he's just on days off today that well you got a have a day off yeah it's really fun now what's your favorite fossil that you've ever found a gar tooth you found a gar tooth you're kidding yeah it was really cool and last year my dad actually found a mammal oh that's awesome yeah we think it was a like a prairie dog type of hyopsodus no but it seems like it's going so you're moving you're just going down a little bit bit all the way around the rock so you get a good even split right yeah and also so you don't mess your fish up as bad oh that's a really good reason when the crack forms yep and also you can stick your tongue to a fossil if you um want to know if it's a fossil my mom taught me that I've heard that that's a good way to tell if it's a fossil now is about to split right open let's see what we got no fish but that was a great split so you would just do that to the Rocks over and over and over again right yeah this looks like fish poop oh that's cool all right well let's do this show us how you would get this fish poop out will you show us how to clip it so you would use either use the saw but you have to be 18 so I um do this until it completely cracks open there we go that's great yeah so you see guys anybody of any age can come out here and do this and to discover this history you don't have to be an adult I mean there's a lot of great adults that like to come out here but man that kids or who love to come out here and do this Miss Sherry thank you so much for showing us how to do this we appreciate it we wish you good luck this year hope you find a bunch of awesome stuff thank you guys Matt this is such an awesome thing that you've got going on I mean this is incredible and what's even cooler is is that the public can come out and do this and do it in a safe way where they can come out and discover their own history we need more places like this yes we do there's not many places in the world where the public can come out and find their own fossils and we help them find that and you know show them what they need to do and they get to take them home yeah that's awesome so tell our audience out there if they want to come out here to do this how can how can they get a hold of you so uh go to fossils safari.com go to fossils safari.com we will have all the information we'll include a link in the in the description below and see if we can't put a link here or maybe here or maybe here we'll put a link and you guys can definitely go check it out what does it cost for people to come out and do this uh so we they can either do two hours four hours or a full day uh for adults a full day is about $159 uh for kids it's about half that price that's incred that's affordable and you get to keep everything yeah pretty much everything the only restriction is uh if if they found something worth over $100,000 because our lease requires us to sell that so explain that real quick cuz I I want to make sure people people understand that so you've got a Rancher that basically owns the property correct yeah this is a ranch uh this qu has been leased from the ranch for over 40 years oh wow we just took it over this year okay so we're operating it and so anything of that real high dollar value the Rancher gets a cut of it basically yeah the Rancher gets a cut of it and that keeps everybody happy you know a lot of these fossil operations that go on you know they're on private ranches and sometimes the only way that these ranches still exist is because you know they of the fossils that they find there it's really important not only for for you know the local Ranchers but for Science and for you the general public out there that you can come and get involved in this I mean just imagine you can come out and discover a fossil that no human being has ever seen you will be the very first human being to ever see this fossil and that is epic and you can take it home dude ah this is a cool setup man Matt thank you so much for having us out thank you for coming out we appreciate it guys remember history rocks woohoo [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right so this is what happens when you stay out here too long this is Cornelius Cornelius is the guy that founded this Cory uh he's got his fishing pole in his net and uh Cornelius he he didn't make it he stay out there and fish way too long so when you come in you got to say hi to Cornelius hey Cornelius this look [Music] [Applause] [Music] goofy so we're at fossil be National Monument heading to the bathroom this is something you wouldn't expect in a normal bathroom oh man it does stink in here but look it's a wall of poop in the bathroom how about th apples that is the coolest thing I have ever seen in a museum that's awesome look at all the poop look big poop big poop that is the poop to the poop look at this poop all kinds of poop look whipped cream pooped grape poop the sausage poop ice cream poop oh my God this is freaking hilarious this this is perhaps the funniest thing I've ever seen in a museum next to the bathroom all kinds of poop yeah science that's awesome