- If you find me a cat skeleton,
you'll be my best
friend forever.
- Oh, you hear that?
(Pete laughs)
Maybe we could trade
that for T. rex tooth?
- Uh, no. (laughs)
- Ah!
You see what I
did there, though?
Man, if he was like,
"We'll see," I'd be like,
"Oh, I'm gonna find the
biggest cat skeleton ever."
(egg cracks)
(ominous music)
(pterodactyl screeches)
(ominous music)
Dinosaurs disappeared from the
planet 65 million years ago,
and when the first
fossilized remains
of these prehistoric creatures
were discovered in the 1800s,
they sparked an endless
world of fascination
for all of mankind.
For Pete Larson, the art
of digging up fossils
began when he was
four years old,
and transcended into
what became a lifetime
dedicated to unearthing
these ancient behemoths.
In 1974, he founded the
Black Hills Institute
of Geological Research.
Specializing in the discovery,
excavation, and
preservation of fossils,
this has become
the perfect vehicle
for Pete to share his love
of dinosaurs with the world.
Like me, his favorite dinosaur
is the iconic Tyrannosaurus rex,
and to date, he has probably
dug up more T. rex skeletons
than any one person
in the world.
These incredible finds
include the world-famous Sue,
who resides at the
Chicago Field Mueesum,
and Stan, who towers
as the centerpiece
of the Black Hills Museum
of Natural History.
Today we are
teaming up with Pete
to bring you the journey
that most fossils travel
once they have been discovered
and safely extracted
from the field.
Hey, Pete!
- Hey, Coyote.
- How are ya?
- I'm fine, how are you?
- I'm doing good,
good to see you.
Wow, this, uh, looks like
a mound of white dirt.
- (laughs) Well, it's
covered with dust,
but if you look
closely, right over
by where the glue bottles are,
that depression is
actually the orbit.
There was an eyeball that was
in there 66 million years ago.
- Oh, so we're
looking at a skull?
- We're looking at a skull.
In fact, this is the nose,
and if you look carefully,
you can see that you
have a beak here.
- Okay.
- We have a nasal horn
right up the naris.
- I'm following you.
- There's the eye.
There's a horn, we took
the horn off there,
and we took the horn off
on the other side too,
but so, what do you think it is?
- I'm guessing we are looking
at a Triceratops skull.
- And you would be correct.
So you're actually, you're
looking at it like this.
- [Coyote] Okay.
- [Pete] That's the
actual orientation,
but if you turn it like this,
it becomes pretty obvious.
Here's the beak
I was explaining.
This nasal horn here tells us
that it's Triceratops prorsus.
- Okay, like the quintessential,
classic Triceratops.
Correct?
- Right, right.
Triceratops prorsus and
Triceratops horridus,
those are the two
that we think of
when we think of Triceratops.
- [Coyote] Okay.
- And they're only
North American animals.
- When you guys bring
these in from the field,
this plaster on the outside
is called a jacket, right?
- Right, right, it's
called field jacket.
- Field jacket, and
all of this stone,
or all this rock that's around
the outside of the skull,
is called the matrix, correct?
- Right, correct.
- So when you bring
it in from the field,
it's wrapped in the plaster,
it's still encased
in the matrix,
and for the most part, it
looks like a giant rock
until you guys begin
to get in there.
All right, so you
do have some fossils
that are more exposed
at this point,
projects you've been working on
that we can look at, get
the cameras up close,
and see a little bit
further along the process.
- So we're gonna look
at a skeleton now
that has been
partially prepared.
One of the jackets
has been turned over,
and one of them has not.
- Okay.
- But you can see,
so you can see
kind of the way it
was in the ground,
and these are
actually two skeletons
that were found in a lake
deposit, and they're awesome.
- Okay, great. Well, let's
go take a look at those.
- All right.
- When a fossil arrives from
the field, it appears to be
nothing more than matrix
wrapped in a plaster jacket,
yet once it's mapped, the
real excavation begins.
All right, guys, so now we're
gonna look at the next step,
once these fossils
come into this room.
Cool, check this out.
The matrix is much more
peeled back, if you will,
and the bone is
starting to be exposed.
What if I kinda swing
around this side here?
- Sure.
So what we have here
is preserved, two
very nice skeletons.
One is not very complete.
We have two femurs and a tibia,
a couple of sternal plates from
a dinosaur called Anzu wyliei,
I just recently described
about three years ago.
- [Coyote] Okay.
- But what we also have
is another dinosaur
of the same group,
the group called
caenagnathids or oviraptorids.
- Oh, okay, yeah, I
know oviraptorids.
- So they have, they're weird,
they're, quote, theropods,
meat-eating dinosaurs
without teeth,
so they're more
like modern birds.
This is as much
like a modern bird
as any of these
ancient dinosaurs were,
the things we normally think
of as non-avian theropods.
- Okay.
- This is all skull
right in here.
This we think is a brain case,
at least part of the
brain case, right here.
This right here is the scapula,
so part of the shoulder blade.
This, I think, is a vomer,
which, one of the palate bones,
is the back of the lower
jaw, is very clearly.
And there's probably a
bunch more skull bones
underneath all of this.
- This is pretty well
exposed at this point.
- [Pete] Right.
- Obviously pretty far
away from presentation,
but what are some of the tools
that you use to get in here,
to get these bones
out of the rock?
Because eventually, all of
this bone comes out of there.
- So here, because these are
really fragile bones and stuff,
so I'll wanna use, you
know, basically something
that enhances my vision,
but if I put this on,
I can see really
closely what's going on.
And these little picks
here, you'll see they're,
actually have two
different tips.
There's one very pointed,
and this one is kind of like
a screwdriver
that's been rounded.
- [Coyote] I see that.
- So we don't actually
poke the bone.
We actually pull the
matrix from the bone.
So if I'm gonna clean bone here,
I'll actually work
very carefully here.
- [Coyote] Wow.
- And this is
really the only way
to clean a skull like this.
So there's a lot
of glue on here,
and a lot of polyvinyl acetate,
which helps protect the
bone and keep it together.
And I gotta work
through that glue.
You'll notice we wrote
numbers on the bones,
because as we're doing
this, we also map them,
like we did that Triceratops.
And so, when we take these off,
we'll still have a record
of where they were,
and that's really
super important
in trying to understand
the series of events
that led this to be
preserved in this manner.
- What I've learned,
Pete, is that
paleontology truly is a
profession of patience,
not only to find the
specimens in the field,
but when you look at
something like this,
how many man-hours have gone
into peeling back the matrix
to reveal even where
you're at right now?
- So there's actually a
couple of hundred hours,
two or three hundred
hours, in it so far.
(Coyote whistles)
Not counting collecting.
But it's gonna have, you know,
probably well over a
thousand hours yet,
and just in this block.
There's another
block of the dinosaur
that you can look at as well,
but before you shift
your attention to that,
I want you to look very
closely right here.
- [Coyote] Mm-hmm, it looks
like a dark mass in the rock.
Is that maybe skin?
- [Pete] Well,
you're very close.
- [Coyote] Okay.
- [Pete] This looks
to be a rakus,
and another rakus here,
and another rakus here.
- [Coyote] As in
pieces of feathers?
- [Pete] Yes, as in feathers.
- Wow, okay.
(Pete laughs)
So that has to be
incredibly important, then,
finding what may be evidence
of feathers on this raptor.
- [Pete] It's one of
the very few examples
of dinosaur feathers
from North America.
- Wow.
Now, this is cool to see
this level of exposure,
but can we head down into
the catacombs of the
Black Hills Institute
and see some of these fossils
that you have fully
pulled from the matrix?
- [Pete] Oh, absolutely, yeah.
- [Coyote] Okay.
- No problem, we can go back
into the belly of the beast.
- All right, sounds good.
(Pete laughs)
All right, guys, the next step
in the journey of a fossil
is once it is removed
from the matrix,
it gets ready for its
ultimate presentation state,
and we're gonna get you guys
up close with those
fossils in just a minute.
Like Pete said, it can literally
take hundreds of man-hours
to fully extract bones
from their entrapped
state in the matrix.
And while we would've
loved to help
bring this raptor skeleton
to presentation status,
we decided it would be more fun
to see some of the
already-processed specimens.
So with Pete leading the
way, we followed along
into the Black Hills
off-display archive of fossils.
- This is one of the
more common fossils,
in fact, the most common
mammal that we see out there.
- [Coyote] Oh, wow.
- That's these guys.
So they're, and this,
there's, you know,
virtually no restoration at all.
These teeth are
original and stuff.
So you can get some really
beautiful, beautiful skulls.
- [Coyote] And this
is an oreodont?
- That's an oreodont.
There's a distant
relative of the camel.
There's really nothing
like them living today.
That whole family
has been extinct.
- [Coyote] Yeah.
- [Pete] So it's interesting.
- And this, just, you
found this like this,
with the mouth open.
- Right, right, right.
And just kinda
cleaned away the stuff
that was covering the bone, but
left the matrix in the skull
to hold everything together
and keep it in
its natural state.
- [Coyote] That's cool.
- And that is a
35-million-year-old
preserved scream.
(Pete laughs)
- More Oreos! (screetches)
Very cool.
- One of the more common things,
you'll find oreodonts,
like you just saw.
- Yeah.
- But one of the more
common things we'll find
will be turtles.
- [Off Camera] Yes,
he said the T-word!
- My favorite.
- So here we have some reptiles,
and you'll be surprised
how nice some of these are.
- [Coyote] Yeah, these are
just perfectly preserved.
Look at that.
- And sometimes with the turtles
you can find their skulls even.
- [Coyote] Whoa!
- [Pete] Sometimes just coming
out of the little skill.
- [Coyote] Can I see that?
- [Pete] We found a
number of 'em from there.
- [Coyote] Wow.
- [Pete] So that's from a
turtle that's about this big.
So it's about a 24-inch turtle.
- That's incredible.
- [Pete] It's true.
- [Coyote] Very cool.
- So when you take
'em out of blocks,
or perhaps you're collecting
like, little pieces of bone.
Like, so this was
exposed like this.
You could see this
when it was found.
- [Coyote] Yeah.
- And there were
lots of little pieces
that we picked up on the ground,
and then we dumped
this out in a balk,
and then cleaned it, and
look what it turns out to be.
- Wow!
- So it's a little
saber-tooth cat.
- [Coyote] That's
right, you guys can see
on the shelves here,
it says "cats."
- [Pete] And so this is
the back of the skull,
part of the back of the skull.
And unfortunately, it's not
complete, but it's still cool,
because it's got a
really, really nice saber.
- That's amazing.
So as compared to
the matrix upstairs,
these things are getting closer
to being presentation-ready,
where now you're really
into the fine details
of removing that
last bit of matrix.
- Right, and in fact,
here's a nice cat skeleton,
that you can see up here.
- Oh yeah!
- And there it's all been
cleaned, being put together.
- [Coyote] Oh yeah, I see
the shoulder blade, right?
- Shoulder blade, right.
And here's the other one,
which is much more complete,
but still missing a little bit.
- And that's a foot.
- That's a foot, yep.
In fact, a wrist or a hand.
- Now, here's something
important to note, guys.
Upstairs we were looking
at dinosaur fossils.
These are cats.
This is the age of mammals.
This is well beyond the
time of the dinosaurs.
Why are we looking
at cat fossils,
as compared to dinosaur
fossils, right now?
- Well, because
tomorrow we're gonna go
on a little expedition, and
if you find me a cat skeleton,
you'll be my best
friend forever.
- Oh, you hear that?
(Pete laughs)
Maybe we could trade
that for T. rex tooth?
- Uh, no. (laughs)
- Ah!
You see what I
did there, though?
Man, if he was like,
"We'll see," I'd be like,
"Oh, I'm gonna find the
biggest cat skeleton ever."
Well, this is really
exciting, guys,
because I know
you've been waiting
for us to get out
there in the field
to search for some
fossils ourselves.
And tomorrow we're gonna
head out into the wild,
to a spot you picked out,
that you think is perfect
for us to find some
fossils like this.
- And if you do
find a cat skeleton,
I will give you a cast
of Stan's best tooth.
- Hey, there you go.
(Pete laughs)
I will take that.
All right, stay tuned, guys.
Our epic dinosaur adventure
continues on the next episode.
I'm Coyote Peterson.
Be brave, stay wild.
We'll see you on the next
prehistoric adventure.
Paleontology is an art
form unlike any other,
and the patience it
requires to not only find
but also release these
fossils from the hold of time
is truly something to admire.
For someone like Pete,
who has dedicated his life
to unearthing dinosaurs,
nothing is more enjoyable
than teaching and
sharing with the world
this fascinating process.
I have always loved prehistoric
creatures, and as the crew
and I left the Black Hills
Institute for the day,
our inner childlike spirits
were filled with excitement,
because we were just
a night's rest away
from going on our
very first fossil dig.
Stay tuned for an
epic adventure,
as we follow Pete
Larson into the badlands
to search for the remains
of ancient animals.
Hey Coyote Pack, in
case you missed it,
make sure to go back and watch
the first episode of Beyond
Dinosaurs, where the crew and I
got to hold a gigantic tooth
of a Tyrannosaurus rex.
And don't forget, subscribe,
so you can join me and the crew
on our next
prehistoric adventure.
(leaves rustling)
(birds chirping)
