WEBVTT 00:00:01.432 --> 00:00:06.546 Coming up on The Children's Hour, we're going to learn about fossils in a kids crew field 00:00:06.546 --> 00:00:12.630 trip to a secret fossil quarry in the mountains outside of Albuquerque. Then kids crew member 00:00:12.630 --> 00:00:18.545 Amadeus chats with New Mexico Natural History Museum educator Mike Sanchez to learn how fossils 00:00:18.545 --> 00:00:24.569 are created and to answer the question, will we become fossils too? We also find out how 00:00:24.569 --> 00:00:30.234 fossils can teach us about the ice age and climate change today from Dr. Emily Lindsey at the 00:00:30.234 --> 00:00:35.758 La Brea Tar Pits in the heart of Los Angeles. This episode comes with a learning guide and 00:00:35.758 --> 00:00:41.713 is mixed with great music. Learn about fossils with us today on The Children's Hour. The Children's 00:00:41.713 --> 00:00:47.198 Hour is an independent production of The Children's Hour Incorporated, a New Mexico based non-profit. 00:00:47.338 --> 00:00:54.954 We're distributed by Native Voice One, the Native American radio network. It's time for The Children's 00:00:54.954 --> 00:00:58.414 Hour. Kids Public Radio. 00:01:03.394 --> 00:01:12.954 Why did the paleontologist go to the doctor? I don't know. Why? He discovered a dino-sore. 00:01:17.198 --> 00:01:22.478 It's time for The Children's Hour Kids Public Radio. 00:01:36.257 --> 00:01:46.034 story Plants, fossils are in prints kept on rocks and sand 00:01:52.600 --> 00:02:03.072 didn't have fossils then we wouldn't really have a clue uh We wouldn't know about dinosaurs. 00:02:03.072 --> 00:02:05.842 We wouldn't know about dinosaurs 00:02:17.004 --> 00:02:17.970 so. 00:02:22.186 --> 00:02:32.641 Fossils tell a story about uh animals and plants Fossils are imprints kept on rocks and sand 00:02:36.450 --> 00:02:36.897 Blue. 00:02:55.086 --> 00:03:03.666 We wouldn't know about dinosaurs. We wouldn't know about dinosaurs. Dear 00:03:07.552 --> 00:03:09.522 You are a dear. 00:03:26.104 --> 00:03:32.479 That's Jessie Farrell & the Gumboot Kids from Sparkle and Shine right here on The Children's 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:39.184 Hour with Dinosaurs. I'm Katie Stone and today on The Children's Hour, we are learning about 00:03:39.204 --> 00:03:46.690 fossils. Today's show comes out of some summer field trips where we learned field recording. 00:03:46.690 --> 00:03:55.047 And I took the kids to a super secret fossil. dig site in the mountains outside of Albuquerque, 00:03:55.047 --> 00:04:03.394 New Mexico. The dig site was located in a private quarry, but a section of it was being dug by 00:04:03.394 --> 00:04:11.640 paleontologists for 350 million year old fossils. We're going to hear more about that and from 00:04:11.640 --> 00:04:17.385 the kids on that field trip. We're also going to hear from a budding paleontologist right 00:04:17.385 --> 00:04:24.533 on our kids crew, Amadeus Menendez. He's a long time volunteer at the New Mexico Museum of 00:04:24.533 --> 00:04:31.878 Natural History and Science. And he interviewed Mike Sanchez, the education director of that 00:04:31.878 --> 00:04:38.692 museum. We're gonna learn about fossils directly from that education team. Plus we talked with 00:04:38.692 --> 00:04:45.876 some folks from La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California. These are tar pits that are really 00:04:45.876 --> 00:04:55.715 like oily asphalt that have captured creatures for 60,000 years, creating perfect fossils. 00:04:55.715 --> 00:05:00.539 We're going to learn a lot more about that. We're going to learn how fossils are developed, 00:05:00.539 --> 00:05:07.324 why they are developed, and where we can find them. This episode comes with a learning guide 00:05:07.465 --> 00:05:16.124 and activities, and you can find them at childrenshour.org. Look for fossils. And in fact, that's exactly 00:05:16.124 --> 00:05:19.858 what we're going to do today as we learn about fossils together. 00:05:24.526 --> 00:05:33.891 To be a fossil a million years from now And make you say holy cow. Though you probably 00:05:33.891 --> 00:05:43.577 won't say holy cow. A million years from now. To be discovered like all those adminites 00:05:43.577 --> 00:05:51.922 And maybe shed a little light. On a history you're trying to rewrite 00:06:01.358 --> 00:06:03.563 speaking, tell a story. 00:06:07.022 --> 00:06:18.195 Allow your gut with a sieve and a wire brush. The Holocene Epic awaits you in awe of this 00:06:18.195 --> 00:06:28.558 sedimentary rock. Love to know how the Earth has come along. And is the Sun still going 00:06:28.558 --> 00:06:34.100 strong? Do you live here or is this cosmic galaxy? 00:06:38.914 --> 00:06:48.225 Raggar, ancient insects trapped in amber I can help the world remember. Tell a story with 00:06:48.225 --> 00:06:49.426 my bones 00:06:54.830 --> 00:07:02.098 continents, the changes in the climate, the species that would fare. 00:07:07.070 --> 00:07:31.122 to be a fossil. 00:07:48.494 --> 00:07:49.861 Yes, I'm down 00:07:54.862 --> 00:07:55.410 you. 00:08:17.262 --> 00:08:25.629 That's Lunch Money from a release called Science Fair To Be a Fossil. Today on the show, the 00:08:25.629 --> 00:08:32.594 kids crew are in the mountains of New Mexico outside of Albuquerque. 00:08:36.268 --> 00:08:45.982 We're with Amanda from Badlands Scientific Expeditions, and we are at a super secret site right now 00:08:46.362 --> 00:08:54.285 where Amanda and her team are digging for fossils. Welcome to The Children's Hour, Amanda. Thank 00:08:54.285 --> 00:09:00.678 you. First, we want to ask a big question. What exactly do you do for your job? So 00:09:00.678 --> 00:09:10.336 I dig fossils as a job. So I go into private quarries and I dig around and find fossils, 00:09:10.796 --> 00:09:16.769 excavate them, prepare them, and then get them into mostly museums. And so that's what we 00:09:16.769 --> 00:09:22.632 do as a paleontologist, you want to find new things, exciting things, things you haven't 00:09:22.632 --> 00:09:29.525 seen before. Amanda, will you take us on a fossil hike? Can we see where you're actually digging? 00:09:29.966 --> 00:09:31.026 Yes, I will. Let's go. 00:09:34.222 --> 00:09:44.412 We're going deeper and deeper and deeper into the big hole. There are lot of rocks. We're 00:09:44.412 --> 00:09:50.258 up in the mountains. We're probably going to see a ton of fossils. We might even find some. 00:09:53.976 --> 00:10:00.991 We're in the middle of what looks like a bowl surrounded by walls of kind of what looks 00:10:00.991 --> 00:10:10.278 almost like it's been blasted. What kind of quarry is this? It's a clay quarry, but we 00:10:10.398 --> 00:10:18.163 are working the limestone. What is a quarry? So this quarry is where they dig out rocks 00:10:18.163 --> 00:10:28.804 and they use them to make things. What exactly are you looking for down here? So we are looking 00:10:28.804 --> 00:10:36.592 for fossil fish, plants, bugs, amphibians, that kind of stuff. I see that there are 00:10:36.592 --> 00:10:42.917 a lot of small flakes of rock everywhere. Is there a reason for that? The rocks break 00:10:42.917 --> 00:10:49.433 up with walking on them. Tractors, water comes in and breaks them up. And of course, we use 00:10:49.433 --> 00:10:54.798 our hammers. and break the rocks up into small pieces to try and find the fossils hidden in 00:10:54.798 --> 00:10:56.786 between the layers. 00:11:01.730 --> 00:11:07.374 We spent the better part of a morning inside the quarry. We have a lot more coming up for you 00:11:07.454 --> 00:11:13.568 about fossils right here on The Children's Hour. But first, this is Susie Tallman. 00:11:16.846 --> 00:11:29.706 If ride a dinosaur, so tickled would I be. If I could ride a dinosaur, would you come with 00:11:29.706 --> 00:11:43.806 me? If I rode Iguanodon, we'd run without a flaw. We'd chase his herds of friends and point 00:11:43.806 --> 00:11:55.374 his sharp thumb claw. Bump, bump, bump, dinosaurs go bump Do the Donald dance with me Bump, 00:11:55.374 --> 00:12:06.570 bump, bump, dinosaurs go bump Do the Donald dance with me If I could ride Tyrannosaurus, 00:12:06.570 --> 00:12:21.328 where would I be? I'd hold on tightly to his neck So he could not eat me to hold on to. 00:12:21.328 --> 00:12:33.057 As Dagosaurus walks, honks and hoots to all her friends, because that's the way she uh 00:12:33.057 --> 00:12:44.106 tucks. Bump, bump, bump. Dinosaurs go bump. Do the dinodance with me. bump, bump. Dinosaurs 00:12:44.106 --> 00:12:53.712 go bump. Do the dinodance with me. Iguanodon, Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, Hawks Triceratops, 00:12:53.712 --> 00:13:04.980 Tyrannodon, Apatosaurus, Rocks If I could ride See the world from high She'd fly 00:13:10.030 --> 00:13:23.397 Bump, bump, bump, go bump Do the dino dance with me Bump, bump, bump, dinosaurs go bump 00:13:23.397 --> 00:13:34.063 Do the dino dance with me Bump, bump, bump, dinosaurs go bump Do the dino dance with me 00:13:34.063 --> 00:13:49.782 Bump, bump, bump, dinosaurs go bump Do the Donald dance with me It's so easy. We're learning 00:13:49.782 --> 00:13:54.717 about fossils today on The Children's Hour in a fossil field trip where we learned field 00:13:54.717 --> 00:14:00.402 recording with the kids crew over the summer. This episode comes with a learning guide. You 00:14:00.402 --> 00:14:09.671 can find it and activities at childrenshour.org. Just look for the episode called Fossils. That's 00:14:09.671 --> 00:14:18.609 what we're digging for inside of a quarry outside of Albuquerque. So I wanted to ask how old 00:14:18.609 --> 00:14:24.661 is the rock that we're working with here? The rock is late Pennsylvanian age, roughly 305 00:14:24.661 --> 00:14:34.593 million years old. Wow. My name is Tom Suazo. S-U-A-Z-O. I heard you talking about how 00:14:34.593 --> 00:14:41.029 the brick companies use the lighter rocks here. Can you elaborate on that more? Yeah, so 00:14:41.029 --> 00:14:47.185 the layers of rock that are on top of the one I'm standing on are good for making into bricks. 00:14:47.185 --> 00:14:51.276 So, they mine them out of here, they grind them up and they bake them into bricks. And the 00:14:51.276 --> 00:14:57.027 lower rocks that we happen to be standing on have a lot of fossils in it. So they leave 00:14:57.027 --> 00:15:00.378 us these rocks to look for fossils and they take the upper ones for making into bricks. 00:15:00.378 --> 00:15:08.601 That's very interesting. Do you think that I could help unearth the fossils? Absolutely. 00:15:08.601 --> 00:15:12.602 I was just grabbing paint scrapers so that everybody could help look for some fossils. Yay. 00:15:16.494 --> 00:15:27.234 Right now I am using a paint scraper to peel off a layer of rock. I'm seeing a lot, and 00:15:27.234 --> 00:15:35.394 when I say a lot, I mean a lot of shell imprints on rocks, which were most likely prehistoric 00:15:35.394 --> 00:15:37.298 clams and shellfish. 00:15:40.398 --> 00:15:47.872 I'm looking around here and there are so many shells. Yeah, there are so many shells. It's 00:15:47.872 --> 00:15:53.825 amazing that these things were buried millions of years ago and just recently were unearthed 00:15:53.825 --> 00:15:54.646 from the rock. 00:15:59.054 --> 00:16:09.935 I've just moved positions. Let's see what happens. See what I find. Oh, jackpot. lots of cool 00:16:09.935 --> 00:16:17.375 shells. Even though this is an environment where we have a variety of different kinds of animals, 00:16:17.375 --> 00:16:23.157 it seems like we're finding mostly shells. So why is that? Well, the shells were really 00:16:23.157 --> 00:16:29.619 successful in different conditions. So when the conditions changed here, they kept living. 00:16:29.619 --> 00:16:36.631 And you'll actually find beds that are void of shells. basically, shells did all right 00:16:36.631 --> 00:16:40.622 in most of the conditions that were here back in the late Pennsylvania. Cool. 00:16:56.046 --> 00:17:02.859 Just to pick and brush. Finding fossils is my aim. So I'm never in a rush. Cause the treasures 00:17:02.859 --> 00:17:10.152 that I seek. Are rare and ancient things Like the. Lossoraptor's jaw. Or Archaeopteryx's wings 00:17:10.152 --> 00:17:22.738 Now all the kilts are lying in oh I am a paleontologist 00:17:29.166 --> 00:17:31.314 oh. 00:17:37.174 --> 00:17:43.581 Herbivore, crushing plants with rounded teeth Or ferocious carnivore who moves so quickly 00:17:43.641 --> 00:17:50.359 on its feet It's like pieces of a puzzle that I love to try and solve It's so fun to think 00:17:50.359 --> 00:17:58.069 about how a species has evolved. 00:18:04.430 --> 00:18:05.618 Yes! 00:18:20.686 --> 00:18:23.890 Is it a T-Rex? 00:18:27.630 --> 00:18:28.306 you 00:18:35.406 --> 00:18:41.842 I am a paleontologist, that's who 00:19:25.998 --> 00:19:34.159 From Here Comes Science, a release for kids by They Might Be Giants. That is, I Am a Paleontologist. 00:19:34.159 --> 00:19:41.893 And we on The Children's Hour are being paleontologists today. We're learning about fossils in a field 00:19:41.893 --> 00:19:50.045 trip we took to a fossil dig site near Albuquerque. We have a lot more from our fossil dig site. 00:19:50.045 --> 00:19:55.977 We have to do some explaining like. Why are there shells in the middle of the mountains? 00:19:55.977 --> 00:20:02.633 Lots more to learn coming up on The Children's Hour. Stick with us. You're listening to The 00:20:02.633 --> 00:20:08.508 Children's Hour, Kids Public Radio. We'll be right back. The Children's Hour is a production 00:20:08.508 --> 00:20:14.453 of The Children's Hour Incorporated. We're a New Mexico based nonprofit organization supported 00:20:14.453 --> 00:20:20.678 by listeners just like you. You can learn more about us at ChildrensHour.org. The New Mexico 00:20:20.678 --> 00:20:24.570 Department of Cultural Affairs supports The Children's Hour. Experience the magic of New 00:20:24.570 --> 00:20:30.922 Mexico's many cultural traditions at museums and historic sites statewide. More at nmculture.org 00:20:30.922 --> 00:20:36.354 slash traditions. You can keep up with The Children's Hour by signing up for our monthly 00:20:36.354 --> 00:20:39.346 newsletter at childrenshour.org. 00:20:44.750 --> 00:20:50.525 The Children's Hour shorts have dropped. We made short segments from our shows for educators 00:20:50.525 --> 00:20:54.709 to make the most out of our learning guides and activities. Season 1 of The Children's 00:20:54.709 --> 00:21:03.916 Hour shorts is at childrenshour.org. Look for the shorts! One, one, two, three, four. 00:22:37.166 --> 00:22:37.906 You 00:22:48.226 --> 00:22:53.848 That's Jonathan Richman right here on The Children's Hour. We're learning about fossils today. 00:22:54.169 --> 00:23:00.791 And this episode comes with a learning guide. Just go to childrenshour.org and look for the 00:23:00.791 --> 00:23:07.284 episode called Fossils. This summer, the kids' crew and I went on a field trip to learn field 00:23:07.284 --> 00:23:15.568 recording skills, but also to learn about fossils. We went to a secret fossil dig site just outside 00:23:15.568 --> 00:23:21.172 of Albuquerque. We're in the middle of the desert right now in the hot heat, but we're finding 00:23:21.172 --> 00:23:25.665 a lot of fossils from animals that seem like they lived underwater or things that lived 00:23:25.665 --> 00:23:31.748 in rivers, but we're in the desert. So how is that possible? About 300 million years ago, 00:23:32.008 --> 00:23:38.371 New Mexico was a lot closer to the equator and the ocean level was a lot higher. So it 00:23:38.371 --> 00:23:44.673 was basically like a small archipelago of islands. And off of one of these islands flowed a big 00:23:44.673 --> 00:23:51.441 river that pushed a lot of stuff from the land out into the ocean. And so these rocks preserve 00:23:51.441 --> 00:23:57.813 not only animals that were living in the ocean, like fish and sharks, but also anything that 00:23:57.813 --> 00:24:03.495 came down the river, like cockroaches and plants and small amphibians. So it's actually a really 00:24:03.495 --> 00:24:10.047 cool and interesting mix of the marine and non-marine in one place. And they're preserved 00:24:10.047 --> 00:24:18.465 here because it used to be an ocean, basically. There we are, now starting to peel up. Oh, 00:24:18.465 --> 00:24:23.307 there's a lot on the bottom of this one. Tons of shells. They're all stacked up on each 00:24:23.307 --> 00:24:31.629 other. It's like a little dog pile. Or a clam pile. Why do we have such a collection of 00:24:31.629 --> 00:24:37.921 fossils all in one area? So this area was an estuarine environment. So that's where rivers 00:24:37.921 --> 00:24:43.811 are meeting the ocean. So you get this wonderful mix of terrestrial and marine fossils. So 00:24:43.811 --> 00:24:48.537 we have things like bugs and plants right alongside fish and sharks. 00:24:51.864 --> 00:24:54.872 Doing this is very calming. Very calming for you? 00:25:18.006 --> 00:25:20.178 This is a broken puzzle 00:25:29.287 --> 00:25:31.634 This fellow scientist who sang 00:25:51.726 --> 00:25:52.146 you 00:26:05.080 --> 00:26:06.411 You don't have a theory 00:26:27.278 --> 00:26:29.412 year of 1930 00:26:36.426 --> 00:26:38.514 In a blizzard 00:26:43.614 --> 00:26:46.226 It was much, too late. 00:26:50.446 --> 00:26:53.650 See 00:27:16.814 --> 00:27:23.730 Now everybody sing! 00:27:57.070 --> 00:28:06.833 That's The Amoeba People with Continental Drift and the continental drift explains how come 00:28:06.833 --> 00:28:13.695 all of the land masses on planet Earth really seem to be a puzzle that could be put together. 00:28:14.215 --> 00:28:21.137 Alfred Wegener saw that long, long ago and now it's understood that he was correct. And 00:28:21.137 --> 00:28:28.721 the continental drift is the drifting apart of Pangea. Creating the oceans and the 00:28:28.721 --> 00:28:34.936 continents as we know them today. You're listening to The Children's Hour and today we're learning 00:28:34.936 --> 00:28:44.234 about fossils. Find our learning guide at childrenshour.org. Look for this episode, Fossils. What Makes 00:28:44.294 --> 00:28:52.971 a Fossil a Fossil by Amadeus Menendez. Fossils come in many shapes and sizes from the tiniest 00:28:52.971 --> 00:29:00.180 mouse teeth to the biggest dinosaur legs. It might seem like fossils can just be any old 00:29:00.180 --> 00:29:06.942 bone or leaf that's from plants and animals that are old, but that's a very broad definition 00:29:06.982 --> 00:29:13.514 and one that doesn't really tell the whole story. So what exactly is a fossil? Does it have 00:29:13.514 --> 00:29:18.985 to be just from animals and plants or can it be from other things? Does it have to be a 00:29:18.985 --> 00:29:25.459 certain age to be considered a fossil? does it even have to be fossilized? Today, I'm 00:29:25.459 --> 00:29:30.832 going to be answering these questions and a couple more with Mike Sanchez of the New Mexico 00:29:30.832 --> 00:29:38.137 Museum of Natural History and Science to figure out definitively what makes a fossil a fossil. 00:29:38.137 --> 00:29:46.103 So the word fossil means or comes from the word fossilis, which means to be dug up. 00:29:46.163 --> 00:29:51.274 So originally, people thought of anything that you dug up as being fossil. So a definition 00:29:51.274 --> 00:29:58.597 of a fossil is any trace of life of a living organism that is more than 10,000 years old. 00:29:58.837 --> 00:30:05.659 So that's, we have to put an arbitrary date on it, that's what came up. So fossils though 00:30:05.759 --> 00:30:12.351 can be of anything from microorganisms, so you can literally have fossil amoeba, all the way 00:30:12.351 --> 00:30:18.222 up to fossil dinosaurs and dinosaur bones. So why are fossils important? What makes them 00:30:18.222 --> 00:30:24.016 matter and what makes them so significant in our modern day world of science? Fossils you 00:30:24.016 --> 00:30:29.939 can learn a lot about the Earth and its history. And by knowing about the past you can learn 00:30:29.939 --> 00:30:35.013 a lot about or predict what's going to happen in the future. Fossils sometimes are extremely 00:30:35.013 --> 00:30:40.914 important in ways that you wouldn't know. Just as an example, we depend on petroleum. Guess 00:30:40.914 --> 00:30:46.017 what petroleum is? Petroleum is the fossil remains of microorganisms that lived in the ocean. 00:30:46.457 --> 00:30:53.601 How do we find it? Sometimes there are these little tiny fossil teeth, they're called conodonts, 00:30:54.281 --> 00:31:01.605 that turn different colors depending on how close you are to proximity of a oil deposit. 00:31:02.766 --> 00:31:08.549 Fossils are also something that tells us about ourselves. We wouldn't know about our ancestry 00:31:08.549 --> 00:31:17.059 if it wasn't for fossils. fossils are important across the board and also 00:31:17.059 --> 00:31:22.671 they're fascinating to learn about the world of the way it was and use your imagination 00:31:22.671 --> 00:31:28.883 as to what that is all about. They're fascinating because it's how did animals live? You can 00:31:28.883 --> 00:31:34.596 learn for example that one animal was eating another. Or animals were eating plants and 00:31:34.596 --> 00:31:39.438 that's still happening today. It's sort of fascinating to think that hundreds of millions 00:31:39.438 --> 00:31:45.087 of years ago these very things were going on. How do we know that? By looking at their fossils. 00:31:45.768 --> 00:31:51.289 What makes a dinosaur bone different from, a bone that you just dug up? Well, there's a 00:31:51.289 --> 00:31:57.831 couple of things. First off, there's the age factor. If it was buried yesterday, it's certainly 00:31:57.831 --> 00:32:03.433 not going to be a fossil. The other thing is that frequently bones that have been mineralized, 00:32:03.433 --> 00:32:09.268 that means fossilized, they soak up minerals through the course of time. And the carbon 00:32:09.268 --> 00:32:13.890 is replaced with silica. So you wind up with not something that is light, fluffy, like a 00:32:13.890 --> 00:32:20.362 modern bone, but something that is actually mineralized heavy and very hard. Are fossils 00:32:20.362 --> 00:32:26.294 still being made and will we eventually become fossils ourselves? The answer to that is kind 00:32:26.294 --> 00:32:32.516 of more interesting than you think. Animals are dying every single day and animals are 00:32:32.516 --> 00:32:37.718 getting buried and animals are getting frozen and animals are, all kinds of things are happening 00:32:37.718 --> 00:32:46.558 to them. And eventually they're discovered. So for example, we have a 10,000 year old mummified 00:32:46.558 --> 00:32:52.658 elephant from the tundra somewhere. Guess what? If it had only been 5,000 years old, it wouldn't 00:32:52.658 --> 00:32:59.921 have been considered a fossil. It's just a dead animal out there. So yes. Things are constantly 00:32:59.921 --> 00:33:06.096 being exposed to the environments in which they will become fossils. Frozen, stuck in amber. 00:33:06.096 --> 00:33:12.801 As far as will we become fossils, the human race will leave behind its fossil evidence. The 00:33:12.801 --> 00:33:20.148 chances of a particular person actually becoming a fossil is really, really thin. If you think 00:33:20.148 --> 00:33:25.232 how many elephants have been around, if every elephant had become fossils, then we'd be 00:33:25.252 --> 00:33:32.117 literally in piles and piles. and piles trying to figure our way through dead elephants. 00:33:32.117 --> 00:33:37.703 But the fact is that it's a one in a million, one in a billion chance of becoming a fossil. 00:33:37.703 --> 00:33:44.649 So as a human race, we will leave behind fossil evidence, absolutely. But as far as 00:33:44.789 --> 00:33:50.084 an individual person becoming a fossil, not very likely. Thank you so much for being on 00:33:50.084 --> 00:33:53.908 The Children's Hour and thank you for answering all these questions. It's been my pleasure, 00:33:53.908 --> 00:34:01.398 thank you. That's Amadeus Menendez of our Kids Crew and Mike Sanchez of the New Mexico Museum 00:34:01.398 --> 00:34:07.034 of Natural History and Science. This is The Deedle Deedle Dees with a song about Lucy, 00:34:07.115 --> 00:34:09.898 one of the oldest human fossils ever found. 00:34:32.590 --> 00:34:40.830 Lucy When I first found you. We played the Beatles song. That's where we found 00:34:40.830 --> 00:34:51.710 a name for you I took you home with me Back to Cleveland It wasn't long before. You were 00:34:51.710 --> 00:35:03.129 famous. Down by the Osh River I laid my notes down I had a feeling I started searching round, 00:35:03.129 --> 00:35:09.723 it was hot and dry. Been loose and you caught my eye. First your arm bone, then a piece 00:35:09.723 --> 00:35:15.666 of your skull. Vertebrae, pelvis, ribs and jaw. That was day one. 00:35:25.506 --> 00:35:57.270 You were hominid baby oh. But not a chimp, at one site we found 40 % of your skeleton. They 00:35:57.270 --> 00:36:00.910 call you in Ethiopia. That means you're marvelous. 00:36:07.598 --> 00:36:17.622 When I first found you. We played the Beatles song. That's where we found a name for you 00:36:17.622 --> 00:36:28.325 I took you home with me. Back to Cleveland It wasn't long before. You were famous Upright 00:36:28.325 --> 00:36:30.066 That's right. 00:36:45.314 --> 00:36:53.035 What are you doing? Oh, I'm just peeling the layers away looking for the fossils. See here, 00:36:53.035 --> 00:36:59.186 there's little seashells, see them? Yeah, I do. This dark spot here is a piece 00:36:59.186 --> 00:37:09.804 of plant material from millions of years ago. My name is Dave. I prospect for fossils. 00:37:09.804 --> 00:37:19.388 Why do you look for fossils? Because I find it enjoyable. I do it for fun. How did you 00:37:19.388 --> 00:37:25.140 get into fossil hunting? I guess when I was a kid, my dad was like a rock hound, and we'd 00:37:25.140 --> 00:37:33.544 go out looking for different rocks and fossils. So currently I'm using my hammer and chipping 00:37:33.544 --> 00:37:40.210 away. Pretty big piece of grey rock. There's a lot of moisture under these rocks. 00:37:43.854 --> 00:37:49.974 Hi, what's your name? Randy Pence, P-E-N-C-E. Now, what do you have here? This is fish vomit. 00:37:50.374 --> 00:37:57.954 Oh. And it's 320 million year old fish vomit. How do you know that's fish vomit? I asked 00:37:57.954 --> 00:38:04.514 the expert over there. Do you find a lot of this, or is this more of a rarity? I've found 00:38:04.514 --> 00:38:09.734 a few out here. I mean, you can find all sorts of stuff. They find coprolites, which is fossilized 00:38:09.734 --> 00:38:17.851 poop. I found a cockroach out here. Which cockroaches have been around forever, probably will be 00:38:17.851 --> 00:38:25.606 forever. That's from this summer when we went on a field trip to a secret fossil quarry. 00:38:25.606 --> 00:38:33.262 You're listening to The Children's Hour. This is Mister Cooper. How do we know? How do we know 00:38:33.262 --> 00:38:45.848 dinosaurs live so long ago? This is a song about fossil. What are fossils you may ask? 00:38:45.848 --> 00:38:58.316 Fossils can be found in rocks or in the ground. Fossils are clues from the past. No one's 00:38:58.316 --> 00:39:09.554 ever seen a dinosaur. So how can we be sure they were real? Scientists found their bones 00:39:09.554 --> 00:39:15.362 in mud that turned to stone. Their history was revealed. 00:39:36.654 --> 00:39:47.407 Fossils can be fish, plants or shells Skeletons or footprints in the sand Or insects that 00:39:47.407 --> 00:39:57.260 were trapped in hard and sticky sap Fossils have helped us understand That's how we know, 00:39:57.441 --> 00:40:02.162 that's how we know Dinosaurs lived so long ago. 00:40:07.982 --> 00:40:13.124 Your listening to The Children's Hour, Kids Public Radio. We'll be right back. This episode of 00:40:13.124 --> 00:40:18.746 The Children's Hour had special support from Sandia National Laboratories. Many thanks 00:40:18.746 --> 00:40:24.316 to Keshet Center for the Arts for hosting The Children's Hour. Support for The Children's 00:40:24.316 --> 00:40:29.309 Hour provided by New Mexico Arts, a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, 00:40:29.309 --> 00:40:34.581 and by the National Endowment for the Arts. Support for The Children's Hour provided by 00:40:34.581 --> 00:40:41.834 the City of Albuquerque Cultural Services Department and the Urban Enhancement Trust Fund. The 00:40:41.834 --> 00:40:47.417 Children's Hour is making weekly learning guides for every episode thanks to the support of 00:40:47.417 --> 00:40:53.950 the Albuquerque Community Foundation. You can support this effort too. Go to childrenshour.org 00:40:53.950 --> 00:41:01.147 and click donate and find our learning guides under our podcast menu. You're listening to 00:41:01.147 --> 00:41:06.550 The Children's Hour and today we're searching for fossils. And when I think of a dig site, 00:41:06.550 --> 00:41:13.545 I tend to picture some remote place like a vast desert or the ancient ruins of an old city 00:41:13.545 --> 00:41:19.119 or the mountains like where we were with the kids. But one of the world's most unique places 00:41:19.119 --> 00:41:26.664 to find fossils is smack in the middle of Los Angeles, California, one of America's biggest 00:41:26.664 --> 00:41:33.283 cities. That's the La Brea Tar Pits. where scientists have found fossils up to 60,000 00:41:33.283 --> 00:41:40.960 years old, including lions and camels and giant sloths. Oh my! We talked with curator and 00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:47.185 paleontologist Dr. Emily Lindsey about this very special place and what it's like to study 00:41:47.185 --> 00:41:55.051 the Ice Age. I love that I get to follow my curiosity. I love that I get to work with 00:41:55.051 --> 00:42:01.747 a lot of different people. I do love that I get to get outside and get out in the world 00:42:01.747 --> 00:42:07.201 and travel and have adventures. The La Brea Tar Pits see experts from across the world 00:42:07.301 --> 00:42:13.234 all looking for clues to the Earth's past. She told us her team oversees active fossil 00:42:13.234 --> 00:42:20.709 digs every day. And so I'll be out there on days checking in with our excavation team 00:42:20.709 --> 00:42:26.904 and talking about what types of information we want to be getting out of the deposits that 00:42:26.904 --> 00:42:33.407 we're excavating right now and what new finds they might have made, whether it's the skull 00:42:33.407 --> 00:42:41.290 of a 40,000-year-old mountain lion or the fossil poop of a 50,000-year-old wood rat 00:42:41.290 --> 00:42:48.473 or a really cool complete beetle that they found that might be 25,000 years old. All 00:42:48.473 --> 00:42:56.012 of this happens just off the city's busy streets. There's museums around, there's cars and buses 00:42:56.012 --> 00:43:02.682 going by. And once you're in the park, it looks in some ways like a normal park, except there's 00:43:02.682 --> 00:43:08.421 a few buildings in it. There's a couple of different museums. And then also, throughout the park, 00:43:08.421 --> 00:43:16.127 these areas that are fenced off and on the other side of the fences, you can see these sticky 00:43:16.127 --> 00:43:25.227 black pools. of what we call asphalt or tar. In cities, we use asphalt to pave roads. 00:43:25.227 --> 00:43:30.210 Maybe you've seen construction workers smoothing and rolling the material to patch up a street. 00:43:30.210 --> 00:43:36.485 But in the La Brea tar pits, the asphalt pools are part of the natural environment. If you 00:43:36.485 --> 00:43:43.639 could imagine taking a bowl and filling it with like sand and pebbles and some dirt and 00:43:43.639 --> 00:43:49.515 some clay and then say dumping a bunch of molasses on top of it. That's kind of like what we're 00:43:49.515 --> 00:43:57.548 digging in. The asphalt seeps are actually the result of they come from underground oil 00:43:57.548 --> 00:44:03.781 reserves. So there's a bunch of oil underneath the city of Los Angeles, just like in many 00:44:03.781 --> 00:44:09.163 parts of the world. But the difference in Los Angeles is that we also have earthquakes. 00:44:09.163 --> 00:44:16.226 And so sometimes little cracks form in the ground and that underground oil smushes its way up 00:44:16.226 --> 00:44:22.659 to the surface. These tar pits are found across the world. But the only one in the middle 00:44:22.659 --> 00:44:28.052 of the city is the one here in Los Angeles, and we're also far and away the most well studied. 00:44:28.052 --> 00:44:35.156 And because the La Brea tar pits are so sticky, everything from leaves and bugs to massive 00:44:35.176 --> 00:44:40.829 animals have gotten stuck at the site, leaving all kinds of fossils behind. The La Brea 00:44:40.829 --> 00:44:48.188 tar pits is best known for our big extinct Ice Age mammal. So we have mammoths and mastodons, 00:44:48.228 --> 00:44:55.875 we have saber-toothed cats and dire wolves, we have giant bears, giant lions, horses, bison, 00:44:55.875 --> 00:45:03.021 dwarf pronghorn antelopes, we have camels, but then my favorite are the giant ground sloths, 00:45:03.021 --> 00:45:08.306 which are related to modern tree sloths, but they got to be the size of hippopotamuses. 00:45:08.306 --> 00:45:15.483 So this whole area used to be a ranch. There were cows grazing everywhere, and somebody 00:45:15.483 --> 00:45:21.564 on the ranch had found a bone and they showed it to a geologist who was visiting from Boston. 00:45:21.564 --> 00:45:28.766 And he looked at it and he was able to identify it as being a bone of a saber-toothed cat, 00:45:28.766 --> 00:45:34.668 which we knew was extinct. And so that's when this came to be recognized as a site that 00:45:34.668 --> 00:45:40.210 might be of interest to paleontologists. The site's biggest excavations happened at the 00:45:40.210 --> 00:45:47.662 start of the 20th century. That's a little over 100 years ago. And then in 1969, the Natural 00:45:47.662 --> 00:45:55.462 History Museum decided to resume excavations here. Researchers even found a partial human 00:45:55.462 --> 00:46:00.982 skeleton at the site, proving that people had been frequenting the tar pits for thousands 00:46:00.982 --> 00:46:08.039 of years for its resources. These asphalt seeps that you know, have been trapping plants and 00:46:08.039 --> 00:46:13.601 animals for 60,000 years have also been very important to human communities because the 00:46:13.601 --> 00:46:19.834 asphalt has a really remarkable property, which is of course, oil and water don't mix and 00:46:19.834 --> 00:46:26.027 the asphalt's already quite sticky and then when it can be dried out, it hardens into 00:46:26.027 --> 00:46:32.330 basically a waterproofing agent. So it's been used by humans for thousands of years to make 00:46:32.330 --> 00:46:39.490 waterproof. pots and drinking vessels to waterproof boats. A hundred years ago, people were only 00:46:39.490 --> 00:46:44.634 collecting big fossils from the site. They were studied and made into museum exhibits. 00:46:44.634 --> 00:46:51.438 But since then, experts have found so much more. And these are the fossils of little 00:46:51.438 --> 00:47:01.015 insects and plants and lizards and snakes and birds, even fish and little freshwater 00:47:01.015 --> 00:47:07.771 snails and clams. It's these fossils that are really important for helping us understand 00:47:07.771 --> 00:47:14.673 what the ecosystem was like, what the climate was like. And the site's sticky tar pit actually 00:47:14.673 --> 00:47:20.745 plays a key role in scientists' ability to do that work. First, it traps everything in one 00:47:20.745 --> 00:47:27.847 place. So anytime something touches that asphalt, it gets stuck there. And so it stays there 00:47:27.847 --> 00:47:33.643 forever, kind of like flypaper. But the tar also improves the quality of the fossil. 00:47:33.643 --> 00:47:39.068 Earlier on our show, Mike Sanchez at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History told us that 00:47:39.108 --> 00:47:47.145 many old bone scientists study are, well, fossilized. Their original chemical composition slowly 00:47:47.145 --> 00:47:55.261 changed over time to a harder, mineralized material. As it turns out, tar is really 00:47:55.261 --> 00:48:01.844 good at preserving objects like bones. It's actually still the original bone. Which means 00:48:01.844 --> 00:48:08.338 that we can learn about the chemistry of the bone. We can get radiocarbon dates. We can look 00:48:08.338 --> 00:48:12.780 at chemical signatures in the bone that tell us something about what an animal was eating 00:48:12.841 --> 00:48:18.644 or what the environment it lived in might have been like or whether or not it migrated. You 00:48:18.644 --> 00:48:24.927 might be wondering, what is a radiocarbon date? Well, it's a major part of how scientists 00:48:24.927 --> 00:48:31.169 know the age of any fossil. All plants and animals contain radiocarbon. It's a chemical 00:48:31.169 --> 00:48:36.723 naturally created by the Earth's atmosphere up in the sky. But over time, it breaks down. 00:48:36.723 --> 00:48:44.410 So as any fossil gets older, it contains less and less radiocarbon. If scientists measure 00:48:44.410 --> 00:48:50.205 the amount still inside a fossil, they can learn how long ago that animal lived. And as Dr. 00:48:50.205 --> 00:48:56.019 Lindsey said, sometimes they can also measure other chemicals inside its bones. They leave 00:48:56.019 --> 00:49:02.697 signatures like a person signing an old letter. we get really small things and really big 00:49:02.697 --> 00:49:09.320 things all together in one site, which is pretty unusual. And so because of that, we're able 00:49:09.320 --> 00:49:16.173 to actually start reconstructing an entire ecosystem in the past, which is a very rare opportunity 00:49:16.173 --> 00:49:22.086 for a paleontologist. We know the Earth looks awfully different than it did 60,000 years 00:49:22.086 --> 00:49:29.142 ago. There are no more wild camels or saber-toothed tigers in America. and many parts of the world 00:49:29.142 --> 00:49:35.982 have experienced major shifts in their climates. Today we're seeing big changes too, and in 00:49:35.982 --> 00:49:42.202 some ways Dr. Lindsey says looking into the Earth's past can even tell us about what we're 00:49:42.202 --> 00:49:48.942 going through now. I think the most important types of questions that are being asked at 00:49:48.942 --> 00:49:55.760 places like La Brea Tar Pits now are really about understanding what happens to ecosystems 00:49:55.760 --> 00:50:02.267 during times of major environmental upheaval like we see ourselves going through today. 00:50:02.267 --> 00:50:09.204 So we know that the time period that the Tar Pits cover is the last 60,000 years or so of 00:50:09.204 --> 00:50:16.361 Earth's history which included the last major episode of climate change. It included when humans 00:50:16.361 --> 00:50:23.606 first arrived. and a time that included a big extinction event where we lost some animals 00:50:23.606 --> 00:50:30.211 from the ecosystem. And so what we're trying to do now is use our information that we have 00:50:30.211 --> 00:50:39.608 from these natural events from the past to help inform how we might be able to protect 00:50:39.608 --> 00:50:48.111 species and sort of best support ecosystem resilience and health. as we're going through 00:50:48.111 --> 00:50:55.608 periods of environmental change today. That's Dr. Emily Lindsey. She's the assistant curator 00:50:55.608 --> 00:51:01.393 and excavation site director at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum in Los Angeles, California. 00:51:01.393 --> 00:51:11.612 Finding fossils, digging in the dirt Finding fossils, time to get to work Finding fossils, 00:51:11.612 --> 00:51:23.254 digging in the sand Dinosaur's digging without hands. Millions of years ago Dinosaurs ruled, 00:51:23.254 --> 00:51:33.283 dinosaurs roamed. When they died, buried in the earth. Dinosaur bones turned into stone 00:51:33.283 --> 00:51:44.230 Finding fossils, digging in the dirt Finding fossils, time to get to work Fossil digging 00:51:44.230 --> 00:51:55.282 in the sand. Finding fossils digging with our hands. Take a little help. Taking a little chisel 00:51:55.303 --> 00:52:03.135 to chip the fossil off. Taking a little brush, brush the sand away. Put the bones together 00:52:03.135 --> 00:52:12.617 for the dinosaur display. Finding fossils, digging in the dirt. Finding fossils, time to get to 00:52:12.617 --> 00:52:24.153 work Finding fossils, digging in the sand Finding fossils, digging without hands Dig deep in 00:52:24.153 --> 00:52:34.481 the sand. Pull the bones out just with your hand. Can you dig deep in the dirt. Find all 00:52:34.481 --> 00:52:43.968 the fossils, find them first Finding fossils, digging in the dirt Finding fossils, time 00:52:43.968 --> 00:52:55.732 to get to work. Finding fossils, digging in the sand. Press Play Picture House right here 00:52:55.732 --> 00:53:00.384 on The Children's Hour. We're going back to the kids one more time at the super secret 00:53:00.384 --> 00:53:05.246 fossil dig site in the mountains of New Mexico. We have a learning guide that comes with this 00:53:05.246 --> 00:53:12.180 show. can find it at ChildrensHour.org. Look for fossils. What's the most exciting thing 00:53:12.180 --> 00:53:18.134 you found? Well, that would be the fossil spider that I found here back in 2014. It's 00:53:18.134 --> 00:53:23.236 the only fossil spider that's ever been found in New Mexico and it's actually named after 00:53:23.236 --> 00:53:32.952 me. It's called Protolycosa suazoi. Whoa, what did you find? I think this is a fern 00:53:32.952 --> 00:53:37.385 right here and it almost has like a black outline. it's kind of like a silhouette just on a flat 00:53:37.385 --> 00:53:47.691 rock. Wow, a 350 million year old fern just sitting in your hand right now. Yeah, as a 00:53:47.691 --> 00:53:53.584 question where can we find photos of all of this? Photos are going to be posted to ChildrensHour.org. 00:53:53.585 --> 00:54:02.076 Look for this episode, Fossils. Oh yeah, that's a nice size piece. Here, let's flip it over. 00:54:02.076 --> 00:54:11.907 Let's see what's underneath. Ooh, there's a few. There's a few more. In 2013, they found 00:54:12.027 --> 00:54:19.511 a shark here. Wow. The guy that found it wanted to call it a Godzilla shark, but Godzilla's 00:54:19.511 --> 00:54:24.985 a trademark name, so we couldn't do that. It took them a day or two to figure out that it 00:54:24.985 --> 00:54:32.469 could be a shark, and sure enough, and it's actually a new species. It's at 00:54:32.469 --> 00:54:40.009 the museum. It's not like the whole shark because it's, smashed. And they figured out the teeth 00:54:40.009 --> 00:54:45.327 of the shark will come out of his mouth and roll down and become scales on his body. That's 00:54:45.327 --> 00:54:55.855 very interesting. There are so many rocks here and so many shells and fossils. You think 00:54:55.855 --> 00:55:01.110 of finding a shell, like, oh, that's cool, but there's just so many of them. It's amazing. 00:55:04.980 --> 00:55:13.726 I've seen lots of interesting rocks here, but I haven't really seen many fossils besides 00:55:13.726 --> 00:55:19.535 the shells. But from what I've learned here, I think this was a very good experience. And 00:55:19.535 --> 00:55:27.142 this is Gareth signing out. You heard from Amanda Cantrell and Thomas Suazo. They're from 00:55:27.142 --> 00:55:34.718 Badlands Scientific Expeditions in New Mexico and they are paleontologists. Find photos, 00:55:34.918 --> 00:55:41.582 our learning guide activities and so much more at childrenshour.org. Look for this episode, 00:55:41.663 --> 00:55:46.506 Fossils. This is Juice Music right here on the Children's Hour. 00:55:53.026 --> 00:56:03.137 the ground there's lots of clues answers to the Puzzles and bones can tell us lots Pieces 00:56:03.137 --> 00:56:16.187 of a puzzle help us join the dots. Oh, paleontologists digging up the dinosaurs uh. Oh, paleontologists 00:56:16.187 --> 00:56:24.523 digging up the dinosaurs. Opening our eyes to a prehistoric world. That's never been seen 00:56:24.523 --> 00:56:25.714 before 00:56:40.297 --> 00:56:41.698 Oh, 00:56:47.398 --> 00:56:59.862 paleontologists digging up the dinosaurs. Oh, paleontologists digging up the dinosaurs. Opening 00:56:59.862 --> 00:57:04.422 our eyes to a prehistoric world that's never been seen before. 00:57:20.910 --> 00:57:33.052 Digging up the dinosaurs. Oh, paleontologists. Digging up the dinosaurs. Opening our eyes 00:57:33.052 --> 00:57:41.711 to a prehistoric world That's never been seen before. Opening our eyes to a prehistoric world 00:57:41.831 --> 00:57:51.026 That's never been seen before Haley and Cholagists. It's what I wanna be. 00:57:59.182 --> 00:58:05.476 The Children's Hour is produced by The Children's Hour Incorporated, a New Mexico non-profit. You can 00:58:05.476 --> 00:58:11.750 find photos, playlists, learning guides, and activities for every episode at childrenshour.org. 00:58:11.750 --> 00:58:17.684 This episode of The Children's Hour was written and produced by me, Katie Stone, with production 00:58:17.684 --> 00:58:23.597 help from Christina Stella, Eli Henley, Sarah Gabrielli, McKenzie Graunke, Thaniel Lentz, 00:58:23.597 --> 00:58:30.168 and Isaac Lacerda. Amber Shiel writes our learning guides. You can find this one at childrenshour.org. 00:58:30.308 --> 00:58:37.121 Look for fossils. Find our podcast wherever you listen to podcasts or go to our patreon.com 00:58:37.121 --> 00:58:43.114 slash The Children's Hour or ask your smart speaker to play The Children's Hour podcast. 00:58:43.114 --> 00:58:49.676 Our theme music was written by C.K. Barlow. The Children's Hour is distributed by Native 00:58:49.676 --> 00:58:57.461 Voice One, the Native American radio network. Thanks listening to The Children's Hour, Kids 00:58:57.461 --> 00:58:58.915 Public Radio. © 2026 The Children’s Hour Inc. All Rights Reserved.