Hey there, Brad, what are ya doin?
[Brad startled sigh]
What are you doing, sneaking around?
Well, I was sitting around bored and I wanted
to see what you were up to.
Oh, well I'm looking at the ESCONI website.
ESCONI?! Hey, those are those guys that we
saw at PaleoFest, right?
Yeah, we joined their club, and it looks like
they have a trip to a quarry coming up where
you can find fossils.
Really, they do?! Did you sign us up?
No, I didn't sign us up for the trip yet.
I can't believe you haven't done that yet.
Alright, alright, take it easy. I'll sign
us up.
Alright, man, go ahead and do it, 'cause I'm
ready to go dig up some fossils.
Yeah, I'm excited too.
Alright, let's go.
[rock music]
Do you want to look behind the scenes
Of an art, history, or a science museum?
Join in with Odis, who's here to say,
"Let's uncrate an adventure today!"
Alright, everybody, we're gonna do our safety
equipment check.
That's right, Odis. We're going into a rock
quarry for our trip, so it's important to
have a few items to keep ourselves safe.
Yeah, that's right. But here's the thing,
Brad, this is my first time. Can you give
me the 411?
Absolutely! So the first thing we're gonna
need are heavy work boots.
Work boots, check.
Then we need a safety vest.
Check.
And we need eye protection, and sunglasses
are acceptable for this trip.
And a hardhat. And the last thing that we'll
need are work gloves because we'll be handling
potentially sharp rocks.
Hey, you didn't say anything about work gloves
that I remember.
What are you talking about? You always wear
those yellow gloves, like all the time.
Brad, these are my hands!
What?!
Yeah, Brad, they're my hands.
Oh, well, you'll probably be fine. Let's go
see what we can find.
What have I gotten myself into?
Ahh, come on.
Hello, everybody. We are in a quarry outside
Belvidere, Illinois. So, tell me, what are
we looking for here at this quarry?
These rocks are from the Late Ordovician period.
Wow, that's such a long time ago!
Yeah, almost a half a billion years ago.
Wow! Half a billion?
So at this time North America was mostly covered
by a shallow sea, kind of like the Caribbean
now.
You mean like, with the sharks and the stingrays?
Well, there weren't sharks and stingrays so
much as things like trilobites and cephalopods.
Oh, I love the trilobites.
Right, and we'll find more things that lived
in these shallow seas like corals and brachiopods
and other molluscs.
Very nice, but one question for you, Brad.
You gonna keep talking or you gonna actually
show me how to dig these things up?
Let's get out there and see what we can find!
Alright, let's go!
Alright.
What's that over there? Check that over there,
Brad.
I mean, maybe we'll find a T. rex or something.
You think we'll find a T. rex here, Brad?
Well, I don't think T. rex was around 450
million years ago.
Yeah, probably not, but that's alright. We'll
find something good. Let's keep looking.
Alright guys, we're here with Dave Carlson,
and he has a very interesting specimen. Please
tell us about the specimen you have here.
Well, this is a specimen of a cephalopod.
It's curved, you can still see some of the
chambers, the divisions here that were in
the original animal. This was the top predator
in its day, 440 million years ago.
Top predator? That means it, like, ate things,
right?
It ate whatever it could catch.
Wow.
You know, I was thinking, Brad. When we find
a fossil maybe we'll be famous.
Yeah? If you could name a fossil, what would
you name it?
I would name it Odisaurus pontificus.
Odisaurus pontificus!
That's right, because I'm a thinker. I'm smart,
and I'm a thinker, and my name's Odis.
Hi, I'm Amber Creger. I'm a youth librarian.
Librarian? That's awesome! So you like read
the books and take care of the books and make
sure the kids are educated?
I try to do that, yes.
Yeah, I like that. So, we're here today and
we got this beautiful little fossil here that
was found. Brad, what do you know about this
fossil?
This fossil is a beautiful specimen--
Very beautiful
--of a horn coral. So coral are animals, that's
something a lot of people don't realize.
That sounds like a very efficient way to eat
your food.
Yeah, just filter it out of the water. Like,
if we could filter dust out of the air and
eat it, that would be pretty easy, right?
Yeah!
But we'd have to eat so much.
It wouldn't taste very good though.
And it wouldn't taste good.
Brad, look, down here, I think I found something!
I think I found something right here, buddy,
check it out!
Oh, neat!
Yeah!
Let me lift it up here for ya.
Wow!
Check it out.
That is crazy!
So what do you think that is?
I have absolutely no clue there, buddy.
Alright, no guesses?
No guesses.
Okay, well, we know it lived at the bottom
of a shallow sea, right?
Right, yeah, the oceans.
And so this is something called Receptaculites.
And scientists--
Reese's pieces litus? What?
Reese's pieces litus, no way!
That sounds awesome. Can you eat it?
No, there's no peanut butter or chocolate
in here.
Aw, man!
But this was a colonial animal, like a coral.
Oh, wow, really?
But scientists think that it's an algae, and
there's some debate about it. They don't really
know exactly what it is.
Who doesn't like a good controversy, right
Brad?
Exactly, scientific controversy!
Awesome, good find then today, huh?
Yeah, this is a really nice piece of a Receptaculites.
Nice, I can't wait to show the audience the
fossil I found earlier. That's a good one.
Yeah, your snail fossil?
Oh, I can't wait to show them.
You betchya.
Alright everybody, we had such a great time
here at this quarry. Brad, we found a lot
of great specimens, what do you think, man?
Yeah, I'd say it was a success. We found an
awesome Receptaculites, somebody else found
a great curved cephalopod.
Yeah, that was awesome.
Yeah.
Well, man, I can't wait til we do this again.
Guys, thank you for watching. Please Like,
Subscribe, hit the bell for notifications.
Guys, there's gonna be more great content
like this coming out. Please stay tuned for
more Uncrated!
[rock music]
You ain't gotta tell me I look good, Brad,
I already know I do.
Alright.
Aw, my safety glasses are falling off.
Yeah, that's not a good look for ya.
Yeah, gotta keep your safety gear on there,
Brad.
