You found a feather, i think so no way, maybe, see a little downy feather you found a fossil
feather that is nuts. There are only a few spots in the world where you have the preservational
environment depositional environment to preserve fossil bugs and joe is literally right over one
of those few spots joe's already been digging for a little bit and look at the perfect detail
in those you got some nicer ones over here too so these are marsh flies right yeah so
we've got marsh flies from the ancient lake that used to be here and they are preserved perfectly
the bug layer is about the bottom inch of this capping right above this weird sugary layer
this bottom rock is extremely kerogen rich which is what preserves - just found another
one - preserves these fossilized bugs this isn't as good as this,
this inch right here is what's got the majority of the bugs right above this sugary crack
yep there's the salt layer that marks the bottom capping rock that is right below all
of these fossil bugs that we're finding here's a better look of the sugar layer or salt layer
that marks the end of the bugs Joe and i believe it's gypsum not salt or sugar,
sugar obviously, but that's cool so they had an evaporite mineral deposit here so one point
i guess the lake had to have dried up and deposited all of this evaporite
out of solution but that marks the bottom of the bug layer keep finding all those bugs geez
Joe found not one not two not three four or five bugs but a lot i like that one way up there
that one's the nicest that one is really nice wow a lot of bugs a lot of live bugs
a lot of live mosquitoes too just eating us up a lot of mosquitoes oh look at this gastropod
cool you got a bug
well i've got a really nice 52 million year old 3d preserved gastropod that's awesome bug another bug
that's the kind of bug i'm looking for like joe said these are marsh flies they're the most common
bug to find in these lower rocks but there are other cool bugs like hornets
and dragonflies but they're extremely rare if we find one of those
we are going to absolutely flip out because that's such a cool piece of history
that's another little feather i think - hold it still - look at that
oh wow that is another feather dude you've got to be kidding me i've never found a feather before
now you've got two that's so pretty well i've got four the positive and negatives shut up
that side's really nice that's amazing honestly we weren't expecting to find those feathers there
are a few places in the world with bugs and there are even fewer places where you have
enough fine detail preservation to first of all preserve feathers and then enough oil and mineral
to give them color so that feather we saw earlier is something i'm actually really jealous of and
it's something really cool such a unique little snapshot of geologic time and natural history
you got a bug that's a lot of bugs joe there's an actual mortality layer of bugs
it has a specific color to it this whole inch down here will have bugs in it but then that one
layer will have seven or eight of them on a sheet just like that last one yep there's another bug
so what we're digging in right now is referred to as a lagerstätten l-a-g-e-r-s-t-a-t-t-e-n
but i have no idea if i'm actually pronouncing it correctly but a lagerstätte refers to any
site that preserves fossils to a degree that is beyond normal and the green river
is one of those sites there's also one in germany um Solnhofen? Solnhofen. Solnhofen is another site
that pr eserves fossils to a degree that's above normal speaking of Solnhofen this is actually
one of their quarry's chisels you can't get these anymore they're supposed to be the best for shell
joe
can you see them i got the positive of a nice bug right there and the negative to it right
there split perfectly on it we've got a bug right there and another really nice one right there
lots of bugs lots of bugs and one caveman what did you say you found bugs oh he found a bug
that beautiful wyoming sunset is our signal to get out of here and dig another day but we found some
really beautiful bugs in not a very long period of time we are going to come out here again later
but i want to see that feather again before we have to leave there's joe's feather one last time
before we head out that's really incredible that level of detail after 52 million years
it's really really cool we've got the positive and the negative of it and we've got plenty of really
nice bugs that joe found today it was pretty ridiculous but there is more stuff to find here
there's probably billions of bugs dead in this formation at least one or two more at least one
or two more and we'll come out here tomorrow and find them joe and i are back at the quarry
for another day of digging up these fossil bugs today has been really slow so far but
apparently joe just said he has another feather yeah right there i dinged it with the chisel
but that is a feather is it the negative over there yeah dang dude three
feathers you had zero before this and now you have three yeah it's been a good couple days
i just got my first nice one for today there she is really good marsh fly there's the positive
a lot of it's still under a little bit of rock and then the negative is right there sweet
oh sweet oh that's a nice one
it's a really nice one that is a perfect little guy that's a perfect little guy
that's a nice one
there's a good one right there you put that rock down a bit more though kind of curled up
oh there's another halfway decent one yeah this one is missing a wing that's still good
show you guys real quick there's that bug real cute one missing a wing but still very nice
Oooh - what - this little corner right here that just popped off had two - nice - follow
that layer it'll have a lot more on that yeah that layer will be good the layer
will be really good i think that's the same layer right here that's got this bug
yeah you might have hit the mortality with that layer there could be some nice groupings
so above that gypsum layer that looks kind of like salt there is a bug mortality layer and it looks
like i might have just found it there's that thin sliver of rock that shows the mortality layer so
i'm gonna follow where this piece came off of and hopefully there'll be a lot more cool bugs
there here is that mortality layer i wonder if you guys can guess how many bugs are on this one slab
if you guess the correct number you win the slab - no - really don't oh john's not very generous then
let us know in the comments below how many you think are on this how many do you expert fossil
hunters think are on here you got the bug layer yeah one two three bugs let me see them bugs joe
where's the third oh the third peeled bug oh peeled on that side yeah oh well
good find though oh is that a fish right there probably see if i can't save it
it doesn't look likely though
oh that's a nice one we've got another unique pair of bugs stuck together forever really like this
one up top you can't really tell because of the lighting but there's also a fossilized poop right
there underneath the bug coprolite it's a seed yeah tree of heaven seed uh Ailanthus confucii
there's that tree of heaven seed really cool even the smallest little things that might
get lost obscurity get fossilized here this slab is almost up and i wanted to show you guys
the reveal as we start breaking this apart piece at a time right there it's a really nice bug
leaf bug and leaf nice leaf it's really cool oh there it is it's down
not bad for one split that was not one split well one slab not bad for one slab
between the feathers we found yesterday today's feather today's leaf and the
multitude of bugs we've managed to recover it's been a pretty good trip we've got
some of today's coolest finds laid out that leaf really is pretty incredible and the fine level of
detail on it is so cool and it's got a couple different bugs on the same plate as well as
that negative to a knightia if you move over here we have those two bugs that started us off
on the mortality plate so those are really cool individuals and it was really fun to follow those
two bugs and find the rest of those cool ones joe found his third feather in the past couple days
which i don't know he has had zero before now he has three it's really cool i think the feathers
are really beautiful and i love seeing that fine little fingers coming off of the main tendril
the main stalk so congrats joe that's pretty sweet after the past couple days
of digging we are pretty tired and we've run out of available rock behind us so it's time
for us to now get out of here if we cover joe with enough sediment and give him enough time
he might become a fossil of his own you stop filming me sleeping trying to sleep hot out