RICK: What in the world do we have there?
DAVE: Dinosaur chip.
RICK: This is dinosaur what?
DAVE: Dinosaur coprolite.
Dinosaur poop.
RICK: This is dinosaur poop.
DAVE: Yes, sir.
RICK: It doesn't smell like poop.
DAVE: My [bleep] don't stink.
[toilet flushes]
I've always loved dinosaurs.
Some people like to sit there and watch football.
I like to go out on the weekends and pick up some dinosaur poop.
RICK: So where did you find this stuff?
DAVE: Central Wyoming.
It's not easy to get.
RICK: OK.
It's petrified dinosaur turds.
DAVE: That's what it is.
You know, it basically ended up at the bottom of a lake
somewhere where there's no oxygen
so it really couldn't rot.
And then, you have a bunch of dirt that gets on top of it,
and it eventually fossilizes.
And you get something like this.
It's a very pretty stone.
They've been making jewelry out of it for hundreds
and hundreds of years.
This rock here could be, you know, made
up into over 1,000 earrings.
But it's probably more valuable just as it is as a specimen.
RICK: OK.
When coprolite is cut and polished,
it's a very popular stone in jewelry.
But I have to wonder, would it be
so popular if people knew what it was originally made out of?
It feels like, you know, stone.
How do you determine this isn't some giant piece of quartz
or something like that?
DAVE: Uh, just the varying colors.
RICK: OK.
It looks like two different meals.
I mean, we have two different textures.
And the coloring on this one's a little bit
different than this one.
DAVE: That had barbecue sauce on it or something, right?
RICK: And how much does this one weigh?
That's approximately 42 pounds.
And what's this one?
That should be about 38, according to my bathroom scale.
RICK: All right.
Fossils aren't that difficult to find.
But dinosaur coprolite can be valuable,
especially one of this size.
So this one could be special, if it truly is coprolite
and not just some rock.
And how much you want for it?
Well, I believe this here should be worth about $40
a pound.
[music playing]
[sigh]
You'll never find another one like it.
You know, I'd like my gemologist
to take a look at this.
Maybe he knows what the stuff goes for.
Can you come back later?
Sure.
All right.
RICK: To me, this just looks like a hunk of rock.
But, luckily, I have a gemologist on staff.
Jeff will be able to tell me if this is dinosaur
crap or a piece of crap.
[laughs]
[ding]
Holy [bleep].
That's some big chunks of rock here.
RICK: Is this dinosaur poop?
You're only gonna see what it is now and not what
it was 20 million years ago.
You have silica, which is quartz.
You might have some calcite in here.
The way that you can tell this is actual coprolite
is by looking at the texture, the shape.
You're looking for something that's rounded.
It's bulbous.
Kind of like a popcorn texture.
That's exactly it.
From what I can tell, this is--
it's fossilized dung.
So it used to be dung, but then
it turned into something else.
Yeah.
OK?
20 million years, yours will look like this.
I would go to the hospital if I had something like this.
As a gemologist, what I'm looking for is growth structure
and the round bulbous formation that
indicates this is coprolite.
If you're not trained, this is just gonna look like a rock.
So what's this stuff worth?
Most likely, this is not gonna be sold as a specimen.
This is just a yard rock.
The purpose of this would be to cut
it up to make jewelry out of.
Most of the stuff is gonna sell for about $10 to $15 a pound.
Yeah, maybe for some of the smaller stuff,
but not in chunks this big.
Although this is a very large size,
I would cut this up because you don't see anything that really
shows this off being dung.
RICK: All right.
Thanks, Jeff.
JEFF: Thank you.
It's always great to hear that something is
legit and potentially valuable.
Now I just have to talk this guy down
from his crazy asking price because they're
not gonna sell as is.
You know, we're pretty far off with the prices.
I'll give you 1,000 bucks.
[music playing]
Ooh.
You know, there's not a lot of collectors of this stuff.
I would probably let both of them go for 1,500.
I will give you 1,100 bucks total.
That's the best I can go.
How about 12?
RICK: 1,100.
1,150?
RICK: 1,100.
I know there's a very, very small supply.
There's also a very, very small demand.
[music playing]
All right.
RICK: All right.
I'll meet you right over there, and I'll write you up.
OK.
[music playing]
One dinosaur's trash is another man's treasure.
[laughs]