Ultimate Dinosaur Digging Guide Episode 1

So, how do you find dinosaurs out here in the West? So, right now, we're taking our four-wheelers up to a place that we can hunt some dinosaurs. Reason is because that's about the only way that this land can get access. But all throughout the American West, there are fossils to hunt and things to discover. And this is one of the places where you can find dinosaurs. One of the things that we're looking for is we're looking for land that's open where there's heavy erosion where there's grass and stuff. Yeah, we can possibly find something here or there out in the grass, but what we want to find is we want to find an area called the bad lands. And bad lands is a term anywhere for just heavily eroded land. That's a term out west that they use. They call it bad lands. Ranchers back in the 18th and the 19th century didn't want anything to do with that land. But that's the land that we want because that's where these fossils show up. Where the land is eroded. >> Ty, this is incredible country out here. >> Here's the big question is is so we're in a country that as far as we can see. Where are the dinosaurs? Like I don't know. There's grass there. There's hills. There's when you come out to a place like this and you're looking for dinosaurs, what exactly do you look for to find dinosaurs in a in an ocean of grass? >> Well, grass is the enemy. Grass covers up dinosaurs. The roots get in, they tear them up and things like that. There is actually dinosaurs underneath us everywhere you look out here. >> So, no matter where we are, >> where you're at, there's going to be dinosaurs underneath you. They're just covered up by top soil and grass. So, what we do when we come out to a place like this is a couple things. First is you got to make sure you're on private land. and you can't pick them up on public. So, we have to look at maps and see where we're at. Then, we have to get permission from the land owner to be able to be here on the private land. And what we'll do is, so if you look down here, you can see these clay hills down here. You can look out and you can see where there's no grass and where it's eroding out. And that is where you will find the fossils and the bones is like on those little hills there. There's this little teeny break over here on the to the south of us. Just that little teeny that little teeny basin with the mud and the sand above. >> See, now that's actually a pretty good little spot. It doesn't look very big. You wouldn't think it's very much, but we find a lot of material in those. There's a transition layer between the different things. The geology, >> you know, that's and that's probably I should talk about that a little bit is geology is important. You want to be somewhere there are dinosaurs. >> So, where are we at? Cuz let let's start with we are in we're in the middle of Montana. So, uh, how how do you know where to go find the dinosaurs in the first place? >> So, you can look at geology map, geologic maps and decide where you want to find dinosaurs. This is the Hell Creek Formation. This is Lake Cretaceous. It's very well known formation that has a lot of dinosaur fossils in it. And what it was was the swamps, little estuaries and rivers and channels. There was mountains farther to the west and they flowed out and they buried dinosaurs. um 67 million years ago. And so when the mountains got raised, when all this area got raised back up, it's eroding all those dinosaurs back out to where we can find them. Now, >> one thing that you got to keep in mind is is that a lot of the geological work has already been done. Literally by 1935, every layer of dirt, and when we talk about the Hell Creek Formation, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about a layer of dirt. Imagine a cake with different layers. Well, that's what the earth is. But what's happened in the United States is by 1935 all of those layers got names attributed to them. Not only did they get names attributed to them, but also what can be found in those layers. The reason why the entirety of the United States was mapped geologically is because they wanted to know where the minerals were. They wanted to know what can be found out of it. So all that work has already been done and it's available to you, the public. So you know, you can't find dinosaurs where dinosaurs aren't found. So you have to go where places where dinosaurs are found and the work's already been done. We know in this layer, the Hell Creek Formation, that you know there are dinosaurs found in that layer. So we look for where that layer is exposed and that's where we're at. We're in an area where that layer is exposed on top of that. All right. So we're standing in grass where the layer is exposed. Could we find a dinosaur in the grass? Yeah, we could find a dinosaur in the grass. Have you? You found dinosaurs in grass all the time. But where we're gonna have >> a lot harder. >> But where we're going to have the best luck is in eroded areas where it is exposed. >> Yeah. The grass it doesn't erode very fast. It's very slow. Um and you just can't see them. They're buried up and the roots tear them up. Where you're on the clay banks and the sand hills, they erode very fast. There's some areas we were digging just last week and we had two raintorms of half an inch in 3 days and that those two rainstorms took 2 in off of what we were digging. >> Wow, that's insane. >> In three days, 2 in of erosion off that off that dig site. >> That's something that's hugely important is is it is literally a race against time to collect these fossils because the erosion processes are so dangerous to these fossils. What does erosion want to do? It wants to break rocks. It wants to make hills flat. That's the erosion processes that we're talking about. And when you've got these precious bones inside there, once they get exposed on the surface, once a bone's exposed on the surface, how long does it have before it's destroyed? >> It depends on the preservation. But a lot of these bones you've only got, I mean, if a year if you're lucky on a lot of this stuff, sometimes only a couple months. I mean, you'll see a bone that's weathering out and it's weathering off as fast as it's coming out of the ground or a lot of times you get what's called hillside slump and the surface of the clay is actually weathering down the hill and it's breaking off and you're not even seeing that bone until it's broke and it comes out on the surface four or 5 ft below where it's actually even at. >> That's why it's so important to collect these fossils and not leave them out there for other people to collect because by the time other people come along, they're going to be gone. That's that's a that's a point that I cannot stress that's so important is is if these cult fossils are not collected literally by the next year they will be gone because you've got freeze thaw where you've got water moisture in the bone when it freezes and expands it breaks the bones and then you've got roots that will actually eat the fossil. >> Roots will what what are fossils but candy bars of minerals. What do plants need to survive? They need minerals. So, you know, it's so important to collect these fossils, but it's also important to do it right, to do it with land owners permission and on land that you're supposed to. So, Ty, how do you how how do you figure all this stuff out? How do you, you know, obtain the land owner's permission? How do you know where you're supposed to hunt and when you're not supposed to hunt? Is it just doornocking? Uh, >> a lot of it's doornocking. Um, there are apps that show you landowner status depending on where you're at out here. Um, you know, you can go to your county recorders and they have landowner maps that show you who the land owner is of this parcel or that parcel and what parcels are not or public lands, things like that. >> So, how do you know? Because, you know, there public lands are a patchwork out here, you know, and it's all about how this area was homesteaded. If you want to watch, we did a video on homesteading that you guys should watch that really gets into that, why there's such a patchwork of land ownership out in the West. But how do you know what what kind of tools do you use to know whether you're on public land? >> We actually use an app. This is uh I mean up until they came out with this, it was a lot harder. So this app will show you show you where stuff is. See, like this yellow is all BLM. So this is all public land. We can't hunt dinosaurs here, which is unfortunate because if you look, nobody wanted to homestead. The clay and the mud, it didn't do any good. If you shot, if you look up there, see them draw, see those big nasty hills with all the clay exposed, all the brakes and all that up there. We can't hunt that. That's BLM land. That's public land. Nobody wanted it because it's, you know, it's not good grazing ground. It's not a good place to grow vegetables and wheat. So, it never got homesteaded. So, that area is off limits to us now. And, you know, let's face it, unfortunately, they don't have the resources to collect the fossils that are out there. They do colle I mean, the paleontological society does collect a lot of material, but they don't have the money and the funding and the there's a millions of fossils being weathered off that stuff and just lost. It's really important to us because we want to follow the law. And so we use tools that use GPS technology that let us know where we're at and where public land is to ensure that we do not go on public land to collect fossils because a law exists that says we cannot collect fossils on public land. Until that law is changed, we can't hunt it. But maybe if that law ever gets changed, then that could open it up to a lot of people to collect fossils. But that's a whole other video. Yeah, it's it's legal to pick up a dinosaur fossil getting ready to fall in a river and put it in a science classroom. >> Yeah. Yeah. That that's a whole other whole other video. But but so these are some of the tools that you use to ensure that you know we can find your right locations. Yeah. >> And you're and we can find the fossils that we can find. So all right. So we've got this vast sea of grass. We've got some some areas to go. Where where where are we off to next? Well, so by looking at this map, I know I've been here before, but just to show you what we're what our kind of plan is. So, we know we've been up here before. All these bad lands we can't touch. But if you look, there's one little corner here that you can see on the map that you can see the bare dirt. And we're going to go up there and we're going to look that. And what we're going to do is we're going to follow and walk all these little edges and we're going to grid all this and look and see what we can fe find as far as dinosaur material coming out. >> That sounds like a good day. Let's go. >> We can come out here and we can pick up every single fossil that's out here and come back in a year and it's like we were never here. So, it's really important. And the reason why is because those fossils are constantly eroding and the ones that are on the surface are literally turning into dirt. Sometimes when we get out there, we're too late where the fossil has just exploded into a thousand pieces. So it's insanely important that we do this work. So Ty, one of the places that you really want to find is you want to find a channel deposit. How do you tell when you're in a channel deposit? Well, channel deposits out here in the Hell Creek were one of the best places to find stuff because it was because it buried up the fossils quickly and they preserved them. So, if you look at an area like this, you can see this was a stream bed at some point. You can see all these little swirls. This would have been all different little sand bars, the braided streams moving back and forth and eroding and redepositing and eroding and redepositing. You can see where I just I didn't even notice there's a a stick, petrified stick going in the wall right there. You can see that white. So that would have been a piece of wood that got buried up right there. So, but what happens is at some point things changed. There was a flash flood. There was a big storm and a storm surge came down the river. Something happened and at that time it went from nice smooth clean sand to heavier pebbles and a lot more deposition faster. And so what that is is these are clay class. So as a stream bank broke and fell into the river, these chunks of clay would have rolled a little bit and buried up fairly quickly. So what happens is animals that fell in or anything that was laying around the river then got washed down got buried up fast enough to be preserved. >> So what you've got guys is you've got just this normal stream calm weather and then all of a sudden a huge flash flood comes through and that's because the natural processes that occur today occurred back then. You know how we have flash flooding when all you know everything the kitchen sink the chairs cars tires inner tubes everything goes into that stream. The same thing happened back then only it's dinosaurs and teeth and wood and all kinds of cool stuff. But also because of that fastmoving stream and it's moving all that material. It buries stuff up really deep and in an oxygen-free environment which is what you need in order to find dinosaurs. So when you find these channel deposits that have all this real heavy clay and stuff, that's evident that there was a lot of water moving through and it buried everything and so the chances of finding a dinosaur fossil are increased. >> What kind of things can you find in these channel deposits? So a lot of times on these you'll find a lot of what was the most prevalent animals of course which was like the crocodiles and the turtles and the garfish and little stingrays and things like that and mam even small mammals and reptiles in these you know just like in Florida Everglades today the little streams and rivers there you'll see a lot more gars and crocodiles than you will deer so that that the bigger animals the bigger dinosaurs you don't get as many fossils of but they're here They're just not as prevalent, >> right? So, here's some of the stuff that we can find. These are little bone pieces whether or not. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. This a little piece of a tenon, oified tenon. And that one's actually got, if I one's got a little bite mark right there. It's got a little predation mark on it right there. >> No way you can see that. That's so cool. Right there. >> Little serrated bite mark on that one. >> That's nuts. So that means something was snacking on >> something ate that animal which is not that uncommon but it is it's neat to see and be able to put that into context. >> Dude, that's so cool. Well, that's the thing is because you know the the it's like we were saying the same things that happen today happened back then. So you have predators coming. You know when you're out hiking and all of a sudden you see you know some deer a deer leg here and a hip there. That's because that's been scavenged on by predators. The same thing happened back then. dinosaur predators were scavenging on these fossils in these bones. Then all of a sudden a flash flood comes in and it buries it all in these channel deposits here. You know, now how often do you find whole dinosaurs in here? >> Well, you know, dinosaur whole dinosaurs are rare. It's just like when you're out here walking around. >> To find a complete skeleton laying there is very uncommon. You don't see that very often. >> So Jurassic Park lied to us. >> Jurassic Park lied to us. They the dinosaur would have had to have been fell in this flood or been buried in this flood. Something would have happened. That dinosaur would had been buried immediately before it rotted, before it fell apart, before anything ate it. Now, a lot of times the whole dinosaur might be in one of these deposits, but he's scattered over a pretty big area as he was being legs were getting torn off and drug off and chewed on and he was breaking up and the bones were rolling down the goalie farther and stuff like that. But to have one nice articulated hole is pretty uncommon. >> So most of the fossils that we're finding are these individual little pieces. Yes. Right. And a lot of teeth, too. >> A lot of teeth. They shed their teeth. They were They're like sharks and alligators and things today that replace their teeth on a regular basis. Just like our baby teeth grow in and fall out. Dinosaurs did that but all the time throughout their entire life. So they were constantly replacing their teeth and their hard enamel and they don't taste good. So they they didn't get predated so they got buried in and preserved. So it's one of the more common fossils you actually find. >> So that's that's a neat things why this is why you see you know like with frame sets or whatever. One of the most common fossils that you see out there is dinosaur teeth. And the reason is is because just like sharks they shed their teeth throughout their lifetime. I don't think any papers have been written on exactly how many teeth a dinosaur lost within its lifetime, but for comparison, a shark loses about 20,000 teeth within its own lifetime. That's a lot of teeth. One animal. Now, times that by all the dinosaurs that ever existed everywhere, all the time. And that's a lot of teeth. And in these flash flood events, those teeth get washed into here as well. So, this is cool. This is a neat channel deposit. This is kind of what we want to find. But, let's continue to walk around and see what else we can find. we can find washing out. Believe it or not, this is easy hiking, easy spot to hunt on. A lot of this country that we we hunt dinosaurs in is very steep, very slick. It's clays and it's what we want to be on that stuff because it's what weathers and erodess out fast. So, what we're going to do is that same stream channel we're on, we're going to follow that elevation around this hill and hopefully there's more channels and there's going to be we're looking for pieces of dinosaur washing down the hill, eroding out and hopefully we can follow it up and find a whole bone. >> One of the reasons why you want to look this whole hillside is because when stuff is washing out, it's also washing down. So, Tai's up there where the channel is, where that transition layer is, and I'm down here lower. If he doesn't see anything popping up up there, I might see it popping up down here. So, if I see a couple of bones, those bones came from somewhere, more than likely they came from up higher. So, what we want to do is is trace that bone back to its source. And sometimes you may not be able to see it, but for the little bone pieces that are down below, and then you follow it back up. >> You can see that, you know, obviously it's weathered. It's not as defined as where we wrap, but you can see this clay. You can see the sand up above it and you'll see all these colored pebbles coming out of that layer. So, we know that's kind of a channely deposit. So, right here coming out, you can see these weathered pieces of bone. >> Mhm. >> You can see these pieces sitting right here. These are all pieces of dinosaur bone. This looks pretty frilly, which is a pretty common one. So, piece of triceratops frill. >> So, triceratops fossils are fairly common. They're a more common dinosaur out here. Yes. And the frill is a very common fossil because it's a hard, >> not very chewy, >> right? >> Piece of bone that nobody was eating on. So, they preserved a little bit better. So, what we'll do is I'm going to look right here. Just see on this transition if it's coming out anywhere and see what we can come up with. >> I mean, it's been sitting out a while. So, I'm just going to look up the hill. See, there's another little piece of bone right there. That's a different piece of bone weathering out. >> And you're just going to look for all sorts of little things washing out and see if we can see where this is coming from or anything else along this area. >> And that's the thing is is that bone has to come from somewhere. And that somewhere that it came from is in here. So, we may be too late. You know, that may be all that's left and the bone is completely eroded away. Or there may be more in here. But we have to chase that bone back to its source. >> And the odds of this being a complete bone when it was buried is slim, too. I mean, it's not just erosion and plants. It's predation. It's time. It's I mean, there's a million factors that want this fossil to fall apart, but it is still a usable chunk of bone. We still put these together. We still use these for education. We still sell these as little specimens that people can look and study at and have a piece of a dinosaur for a very reasonable price by doing them like this. >> And that's what's really important. This is stuff that, you know, maybe in the academic world isn't very valuable because there's nothing there to really study and understand. But for guys like us, you know, that's something that we can pick up and we can find good homes for them. We can find a classroom that they can go to or we can find a you know who I mean for a couple dollars you can get your first dinosaur bone and it's a real dinosaur bone. >> The way I look at this is this was what sparks the interest of the kid that becomes the paleontologist. This is what sparks the interest of the billionaire that donates the money to make the museum so that they have somewhere to put dinosaurs. This is what gets people going. You know, obviously Jurassic Park gets everybody going, but being able to hold it in your hand and actually see it and understand what a dinosaur is makes a huge difference. >> And nothing gets wasted. We collect everything that we find to ensure that this thing can do its job and that's inspire the next generation to love this history. You can watch Jurassic Park all you want to. You can watch movies all you want to, but until you actually hold a real freaking dinosaur. I mean, how cool is that? That is what's going to inspire you. And you don't have to pay $1,000 to get that inspiration. A couple of bucks will get you a cool piece like just like this. >> Yeah. And that's I mean, if we just left this here, you can see it's already breaking up. It would just be broken up, cow stomped, deer trampled, weathered, washed down the hill and just turned to dirt within no time at all. Yeah. >> And it does nobody any good at that point. >> So by collecting it, it's a service that we're doing. And that's the way Tai and I see this. This is a service that we see that we do to inspire the next generation of people coming up who want to go into the academic world or who want to donate to museums or who want to care about this history because this history isn't doing anybody any good sitting out here and nobody's coming out here to excavate this. I mean, turn around. Look, look, look at all this. Look at all this. And it all has dinosaurs. All of it. All of it. >> All of it. So just what you see here within view, if it was all available for me to hunt, if I was lucky in a year I could hunt all this and see what needs and just see what needs to be dug up. That's if I don't have to do any big digs or any serious excavations. Next year I got to hunt it all again. >> Exactly. >> There's not enough paleontologists to even look at it, let alone dig what's actually eroding and washing out >> because >> And then there's nowhere to put them. Where are they going to put them? Because these fossils that are here that we are picking up and collecting once this is collected, it's got about by the time we come out here next year, there'll be fresh stuff still coming out. Not because there's a dinosaur there, but because it's a it's a channel deposit. It's a transition layer. But this stuff continues to pop out once it's collected because the forces of erosion are still doing their thing. They are eroding this hillside trying to make this mountain flat. And so these fossils can be collected and can be get into somebody's hands who will love it and appreciate it and will inspire them to learn some brand new stuff just from this cool piece of dinosaur right there. That's a little piece of bone. Another piece of turtle shell. Another piece of bone of some sort. And this material is just constantly weathering out like this. And here's another thing, too. So, that's the layer that it's coming out on, but there's still pieces of bone down here. And that's the forces of erosion working. And there's going to be pieces of bone down there and pieces of bone down there. Because once this erodess out, it is breaking down into these small little pieces and turning back into dirt. And the west is filled with all of these tiny pieces of dinosaurs that have eroded out. So we've kind of come to the end where the erosion >> is most prevalent. Now we're getting into a little smoother ground. So we're what we're not going to find much here. >> Yeah. So what happens is you get the slough. You get all the material that's fell down the hill and it's redeposited over the top of that channel layer. So we're not seeing it here. And it's just, you know, it's grass. Right. >> So, >> we could still get lucky and maybe find something here, but we've got a lot of areas to cover and we like better odds. >> But see, that's just it. You walk, you check out a place, you know, you find a few bone pieces, nothing good sticking out. So, all right, pick up packs, hop back on four-wheelers, or start hoofing it to the next hillside that's like that. And that's what we're going to do. We're going to start hoofing it to the next hillside. So, while we're out here looking, we come across all kinds of bones, but we also come across more turtle shell. So, here, if you look right here, there's a nice piece of turtle shell that's in situ down here. So, this is a piece that we will pick up and collect. Here's where it goes. Right there. There's a little piece of turtle shell. We know it's turtle because of these little bumps that are on the bone. So, that's a small piece of turtle shell that we will pick up and collect and utilize in our Pokemon frames. So, the turtles that you collected, this is how they're found. Just us walking around here looking where these channel deposits are, hunting for dinosaur fossils, and finding some really cool places in it. What's up, guys? I'm so sorry to stop you in the middle of an episode, but we really need your help. Chasing history is brought to you by my business, the Smoky Mountain Relic Room, which is the largest diversity of history for sale anywhere in North America. If I had my choice, I would be doing nothing but out there making documentaries for you guys to learn some cool history from. But unfortunately, we got to pay the bills. Chasing history is completely funded by Smoky Mountain Relic Room. So, if you get a chance and you want to check out some cool history, go to our website, the relic.com. We're easy to find. If you want to check out our social media, Smoky Mountain Relic Room, you can't miss us. But if you see some stuff there that you like, man, we would love to get some cool history into your hands. But if you don't, then dude, just pass it on and share it with somebody else. But if you want to support this channel, go to the relic room.com or Google Smoky Mountainreck Room, guys. We would really that would be epic. I love you all. Remember guys, these are rocks. Woo. So this is a little badlands, a little breaks that go up and over this hill. From Google Earth, we could see this spot. We could see there was no grass. It was steep enough that it was good good looking for dinosaurs. It goes over, you can't even see it from here, but it goes over into more on the other side. So we got on the maps, we looked at what made sure it was legal, made sure we could come here. You can see that fence line there on the hillside. That's actually the adjoining ranch. So, by looking at the landowner plots and stuff, we can see we're safe on this side of the fence. That side of the fence, we can't go on. But one of the things to remember when you're out here in the west is a lot of times the fences are not necessarily the actual boundary to properties because of this rough terrain, they'll go around hills or through a gully funny or up and over some big rock piles or something to avoid, you know, be make the fencing as easy as they could. So you always have to make sure you're actually on good ground. >> And that's the reason why we're using, you know, satellite technology and these tools also as a fail safe. You know, we keep bringing this point up again and again and again because it is really important. You know, there are laws that exist for reasons. We may not agree with them, but there's still laws done the same. And we want to make sure that we follow those laws to the letter. And that is no collecting vertebrate fossils on public land. Period. Point blank. The end. So, we go out of our way to ensure that we are on the private property that we have permission on. And that's something for you guys out there to keep in mind as you're going out looking for places to hunt fossils. Make sure that you are on private property and you have the land owner's permission. Those are two that's the the most important two things that you have got to have. So, all right. Well, so we're going to head up this draw and basically same thing. Just look for bone that's coming out. >> Yeah. Well, we'll grid this is what we'll do. These areas that are exposed, we will actually make sure and look at every bit of exposed ground on here. One will go high, one will go low, and we'll zigzag back some of these areas. And it's one of those things that we could be 10 seconds from now, we find a dinosaur or we don't find nothing worth looking at all day. It's just really luck of the draw. And you got to be a little bit of a gambler for this business. >> And see, that's another thing. Yeah, that's another thing about chasing history. We're not going to plan anything. We're not going to make it up. Th This is dinosaur hunting. There's no bone planted up there. This if we find something, we find something. If we don't, we don't. But that's what you're going to get on this channel is is we're going to show you the reality of it. And the reality of it, we have no idea. And I'm going to walk the other side to see if I can't find something. Ty's going to walk one side and we'll see if we can't come across. And if Ty spots something, since he's the man with the knowledge, he's going to pass it on to you. All right. >> So, Ty's spotting from up top and I'm going down below. And we're looking for these little bone bits here. And we're kind of chasing up. See if it come see if it's coming out. And in this case, it's just a few pieces of little >> pieces of foam. But they're indicators is what they are. >> So that tells you that there could be something up here >> where there's one. There's usually more. So at some point this weathered out and rolled down the hill, whether it was a whole bone or just a little pebble or whatever. But it means you're in the right area. means you want to slow down and really look at what you're looking for and see what pops out. >> And in this case, after chasing the bone up, we really we found that that's all that there was. But sometimes that's it. That's all that you get is just a few pieces of bone. Sometimes you follow it back up and you get a whole dinosaur. So it's just walking and looking and walking and looking and walking and looking and walking and looking. >> Lot of sidehill. This is kind of what we're wanting to look for because you wouldn't find this, you know, not in a creek. This is a little little piece of a croc scoot. So, this is a little that armored these are armored plating stuff. >> Dermal oicle >> is the technical term for it. >> Yeah. The little bumps on a crocodile's back. So, this is an indicator that you are in or you are finding stuff in a watery environment that we're actually in an old creek or an old river channel or very close to one because you wouldn't find this in a place where it wasn't. So, that's a good indicator that the layers that we're looking for, the layers that we're looking at is going to have some fossils in it. So, just little indicators like this are things that you keep your eye out for. It's just a tiny piece of bone, you know, but it can tell you a whole lot about the environment. >> Start of something bigger. >> Yep. It could be the start of something a lot bigger. >> Whoa. We got some wildlife. Come here. Come here. >> Wild life. >> Run, Chase. Run, Chase. Come here. Run, Chase. >> Whoa. Whoa. You are not liking this at all. Oh, a little >> a little toad. >> Little toad. >> Little toad. >> Little toad. >> Little toad. These little toads are awful cute out here. >> Oh, yeah. >> You wouldn't think that's this is a place for frogs and toads, but there's a lot of them out here. >> There is a whole lot of them out here. >> They bury themselves in the sand when it gets dry and just hide out. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Oh, he's really wanting to to escape. >> Yeah. >> Hold on there, buddy. >> We're just showing you to the world. >> They're fun. But we've had a lot of rain out here within the past couple of days. And so that's why these guys are active and running around. Now, when it dries up, this guy will be underwater and he will secrete this mucus around him to keep himself hydrated. So, there's not just dinosaurs that you can find out here. You can find all kinds of cool little amphibians, like this little toad right here. >> This is what's fun about just being out and exploring. >> Yep. That's a big point, too. I mean, when you get out and explore, you never know what you're going to come across. And this little guy is a cool, fun thing to come across. Now, go on. Let's hope he doesn't get found by a coyote. So, your predators like coyotes and snakes and things like that. A lot of rattlesnakes out here, you know, they will eat up on little guys like that. You see this vast landscape, you wonder how those animals can survive. Well, coyotes and rattlesnakes and other predators. Uh, aren't there porcupines out here? >> There's a lot of porcupines out here. >> Porcupines, things like that. They'll not the porcupines, but you know, they they'll go after these smaller animals that are moving around after after water. So, anyway, we're going to let him go hide and keep hunting dinosaurs. Got another little turtle little turtle fossil. So, this is how this stuff is found. We just run out and we look and there we go. Just a little tiny little piece of turtle bone, but it's still turtle bone. So, what we'll do is we'll take this and we'll put it into our Pokemon displays. And the fossils that you see in your Pokemon display, this is this is how they're found. This is where they come from. So, we're out here walking around hunting for fossils. We'll try to find better pieces than this. This is just a little teeny tiny piece, but uh hopefully we'll find some find some better pieces. But all of the fossils that you see in the frames, this is how they're found. Chase only had to walk like 600 yd for one little turtle bit. So, we just kicked a dove out of here and it was acting all hurt and injured. Oh, I can't fly. Come chase me. And the reason for that is there's a little nest with two little eggs right there underneath that bush. But here's the bad thing. It made a stop. And there is a dinosaur bone literally right up against You see all these big pieces right here? That's enough big pieces right there. I can guarantee there's a bone washing out just right there. But we are gonna have to come back at a later date because I'm not gonna keep her off that nest. But that's a good I mean you can see these bigger pieces are coming out and they're fresh fresh brakes. Those are really important decisions that we make when we're out here is is you know we we both Ty and I really enjoy and appreciate the wildlife and if you destroy it, you know, then there's not going to be any wildlife to see. So here we've got a bone going in coming into the ground, but right next to it is this dove's nest. So we want to leave that alone, mark this spot so we can come back at a later date when those when those eggs are hatched. >> Is that the bone? >> That's the bone that's going in right there. >> So there's a bone going in right there. But this is a decision that we make that's like, all right, let's come back to this later. >> Yeah. We don't want We don't want to There's no reason to hurt little baby birds for >> for dinosaur >> a dinosaur bone that'll be there in a couple weeks after they hatch out and move on. >> But as you >> we mark We'll mark this spot and we'll come back. >> As you do things, that's really important. >> See the big chunk of frill underneath that? See, there's another chunk of bone. That's a big chunk of frill, isn't it? >> Big chunk. So, we've got a lot of activity here. >> So, this is Triceratops frill. See the big blood grooves in it? So that's the blood grooves that just like on a cow horn or anything it would have had a carrot and sheath covering that up and these blood grooves would have been feeding it. >> So how do you tell I mean other than you know we know this is a triceratops because of that but how do you know the difference between a hydrosaur and a triceratops and then >> well the hydrosaur didn't have the blood grooves on frill. The frill is very dense. There's not like soft marrow in it. It's a very distinct shape that you learn out here. Um the other bones it's basically you have to study the bones. You have to look every vertebrae for every different type of animal has a little bit different shape, different curve. The processes are a little different. It's a lot of study and a lot of research. >> Just like anything in this world, you're going to have to study at it. You're going to have to research it. I mean, there's a lot of work that goes into this. There are simple things that you can look at to tell what's a bone and what's not a bone. And I'll give you an example here. So this it's got the shape. It looks like some bone, but it's sandstone. And when you examine the bone closely, when you examine this rock closely, you can see the little sand particles. So, you know, to an untrained eye, that's a dinosaur bone. But to a trained eye, you see, okay, that's that's sand. So, then that means this is sandstone. But to an untrained eye, this looks like a rock. But to the trained eye, all right, we've got the blood grooves here. But most importantly, we've got the marrow where we can see the little holes for the blood where the marrow was on the bone. Those are indicators that we use to tell what is a bone and what is not a bone. And then when you get into the different species, that's where you're just going to have to study and learn. Maybe one time some at some point in the future, we'll do a video try to show you guys what different species of bone looks like. But for right now, it's really you're looking for the marrow and you're looking for things like this, the blood grooves, the patterns on it. So, it comes back to, you know, you're going to find dinosaurs where there are dinosaurs, and you're not going to find dinosaurs where there aren't dinosaurs. Like in Tennessee, there's very few dinosaurs in Tennessee. You're not going to find dinosaurs in Tennessee cuz the work has already been done. So, all right, we'll mark it. >> So, what I'm doing is I'm This is how you dig dinosaurs. The old kitchen steak knife, but what I'm doing is I'm probing. And I'm looking for where that's coming out at. That's a pretty fresh bone. There should be more of that here. >> Here. I'm going to throw it in your pack. >> I was going to say I'm actually going to leave that sitting here so we can see it so I can so I can remember this spot when we can come back in a couple weeks cuz we're out here for months. >> So, how long how long do you stay out here hunting this stuff up? Uh, we'll be in the Hell Creek at least three months a year, if not longer. Three to five months. >> We do the Jurassic for about a month and a half. We do this for 3 to five months. We're Yeah, we live out here. >> But you have to in order to find this stuff. Yeah. >> Now, you know me with the relic room, you know, I don't do this all year. I only do it for a couple of months during the during the year. and I hook up with Tai and we go find some stuff and we, you know, we we we the stuff that we find we'll purchase from him and then we'll take it back to the relic room and sell it. Um, so but some of these guys that do that do nothing but dinosaurs like Ty. That's all Ty does is dinosaurs and rocks. So, he is out here literally all year, whereas I only can come out during the summer dig season and then I'll hop back east and then go on to the next thing, whether it's, you know, antiques or artifacts or or whatever. But it's guys like this, the fossils that you see, that's where they come from. That man right there. Our next episode, the adventure continues as Chase and Ty push deeper into the hunt for dinosaurs. But this time, they're not alone. Reuniting with the crew, they break ground on the excavation site. And within minutes, history begins to surface. Fossils everywhere. Don't miss what they uncover next. Heat. Heat. Because we find a lot of work that goes into finding these tiny little tiny little bones or stupid little stupid stupid ah let's not use that one cuz going to educate somebody to not do the stuff we do. >> Yeah.