I Mined a Fossil Site

Summary

In this adventurous video, a man embarks on a road trip to the Texan desert, Big Bend, in search of dinosaur fossils. With the guidance of paleontologist Andre from 'Pawn Stars,' he learns the excavation process and unearths a turtle shell and a potential dinosaur rib. The journey is driven by a childhood memory of lying about a fake fossil in school, leading to a heartfelt surprise for his second-grade teacher, Miss McCain, with a real dinosaur fossil and a $10,000 check, symbolizing the impact of her encouragement.

Takeaways

• 🦕 The video documents a journey to find a dinosaur fossil in the Texan desert, Big Bend, known for its rich fossil deposits.
• 🔍 The narrator aims to find a real dinosaur fossil to make amends with a past lie told to his second-grade teacher, Miss McCain, about a fake fossil.
• 🚗 The trip involves a road trip with stops for drinks and a humorous account of the narrator's experiences and anticipations.
• 👨‍🔬 Andre, a paleontologist from Pawn Stars, guides the narrator in the fossil excavation process, providing expertise and support.
• ⛏ The excavation process includes steps like searching for a good spot, digging, and identifying fossils embedded in rock.
• 🦈 The narrator discovers an ancient turtle shell, which is a significant find as it dates back to the time of dinosaurs.
• 🦴 Alongside the turtle shell, other fossils such as a dinosaur vertebrae and a potential dinosaur rib are found, indicating the area's fossil richness.
• 🌱 A plant fossil is also discovered, adding to the variety of ancient life forms present at the site.
• 🦴 The potential discovery of a dinosaur skull fragment and a T-Rex tooth intensifies the excitement and significance of the find.
• 🎓 The video concludes with a surprise for Miss McCain, where the narrator presents her with a real dinosaur fossil and a $10,000 check, fulfilling a childhood promise and showing gratitude.

Q & A

What is the main objective of the narrator's road trip to Big Bend?

The main objective is to excavate a dinosaur fossil and bring it back home within the next 48 hours.

Who is Andre and what is his role in the narrator's journey?

Andre is a real paleontologist and dinosaur expert from Pawn Stars. He allows the narrator to excavate his land, which is rich with fossils, and guides him through the process.

What is the narrator's motivation for wanting to find a real dinosaur fossil?

The narrator wants to find a real dinosaur fossil to surprise his second-grade teacher, Miss McCain, with whom he had previously lied about bringing a fake fossil for show and tell.

What is the 'cone of opportunity' mentioned in the script?

The 'cone of opportunity' is a term used by the narrator to describe the area around the turtle fossil that they plan to excavate carefully to ensure its safe extraction.

What significant discovery does Andre make during the excavation?

Andre discovers a dinosaur vertebrae, which is a significant find that prompts him to return to his lab for further examination.

What does the narrator find that he believes is a dinosaur rib?

The narrator finds a bone that Andre, the paleontologist, is fairly confident is a dinosaur rib, which they plan to preserve for extraction and transport.

What is the significance of the 'dinosaur kiss tooth' found during the excavation?

The 'dinosaur kiss tooth' is significant because it is a tooth from a predator that used to eat T-Rexes, indicating the presence of a formidable dinosaur species in the area.

What is the final surprise the narrator plans for Miss McCain?

The narrator plans to surprise Miss McCain with a real dinosaur rib and a ten thousand dollar check as a way to make up for lying about the fake fossil and to show his appreciation for her encouragement.

How does the narrator feel about the experience of excavating fossils?

The narrator feels like a kid again, enjoying the fun of playing in ancient dirt, and is truly excited about the process of excavating fossils.

What is the narrator's final takeaway from the paleontology experience?

The narrator's final takeaway is that paleontology is awesome and that one should always tell their teacher the truth.

Outlines

00:00

🌋 Dinosaur Fossil Excavation Adventure

The video script details a thrilling adventure to the Texan desert in Big Bend, known for its rich dinosaur fossil deposits. The narrator, on a road trip, aims to excavate a dinosaur fossil within 48 hours. The journey is filled with humorous anecdotes and the excitement of reaching the desert. Upon arrival, the narrator meets Andre, a paleontologist from 'Pawn Stars', who has scouted the area using geological surveys. Despite a lack of experience, the narrator, with Andre's guidance, begins the excavation process, hoping to find fossils of alligators, turtles, and possibly dinosaurs. The process involves searching for a good spot, digging, and carefully extracting the fossils. The narrator's light-hearted approach to the task, including humorous sound effects and a playful attitude, adds a layer of entertainment to the educational experience.

05:02

🦕 Unearthing Ancient Treasures

In the second part of the script, the narrator, with Andre's help, makes significant discoveries. They find a fossil of an ancient turtle shell, which is a remarkable find as it coexisted with dinosaurs. The narrator's motivation for the excavation is revealed to be a desire to make amends with a past lie told to a beloved second-grade teacher, Miss McCain, about a fake fossil. The script takes a heartfelt turn as the narrator plans to surprise Miss McCain with a real dinosaur fossil and a significant monetary gift. The excavation continues with the discovery of a potential dinosaur rib and skull fragment, which Andre takes seriously, indicating the importance of these finds. The script concludes with the narrator's reflection on the joy of the excavation, the educational value of paleontology, and the personal significance of the journey, which includes a surprise visit to Miss McCain with the genuine dinosaur rib and a check for ten thousand dollars.

Keywords

💡Dinosaur Fossil

A dinosaur fossil refers to the preserved remains or traces of dinosaurs, which are prehistoric reptiles that lived millions of years ago. In the video, the main theme revolves around the search for dinosaur fossils, particularly in the Texan desert. The script mentions the discovery of a 70 million year old dinosaur fossil, highlighting the significance of these remains in understanding Earth's history.

💡Excavate

To excavate means to dig or remove material, typically soil or rock, in order to uncover something buried beneath, such as archaeological or paleontological artifacts. In the context of the video, the protagonist embarks on an adventure to excavate a dinosaur fossil site, showcasing the process of uncovering fossils from the ground.

💡Paleontologist

A paleontologist is a scientist who studies prehistoric life, particularly through the examination of plant and animal fossils. In the video, Andre, a real paleontologist and dinosaur expert from Pawn Stars, guides the protagonist in the proper techniques for excavating fossils, emphasizing the scientific expertise required in the field.

💡Fossil Site

A fossil site is a location where fossils can be found, often due to the presence of sedimentary rocks that have preserved the remains of ancient organisms. The video's script describes a journey to a fossil site in the Texan desert, Big Bend, known for its rich deposits of dinosaur fossils, indicating the importance of such sites for paleontological research.

💡Turtle Shell

A turtle shell, or carapace, is the protective bony or cartilaginous shell that covers the back and sometimes the belly of a turtle. In the video, the protagonist discovers an ancient turtle shell, which is significant as it provides evidence of the diverse life forms that coexisted with dinosaurs millions of years ago.

💡Dinosaur Vertebrae

Dinosaur vertebrae are the individual bones that make up the spinal column of a dinosaur. In the video, Andre finds a dinosaur vertebrae, which is a crucial discovery as it provides direct evidence of dinosaur remains and can offer insights into the anatomy and physiology of these prehistoric creatures.

💡Field Work

Field work in the context of paleontology refers to the on-site activities involved in the search for, and collection of, fossils. The video script highlights the challenges and excitement of field work, as the protagonist experiences the thrill of discovering fossils firsthand, contrasting with the more theoretical aspects of the discipline.

💡Geological Surveys

Geological surveys involve the study of the Earth's structure and composition, often to locate areas with potential geological or paleontological significance. The script mentions that Andre scouted the property using geological surveys, indicating the use of scientific methods to identify promising sites for fossil excavation.

💡Shopify

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows individuals to set up online stores and sell products. In the video, the protagonist uses Shopify to set up a fake website for a teacher sweepstakes, which is a creative way to surprise his former teacher with a real dinosaur fossil and a monetary gift, showing the platform's versatility in supporting personal projects.

💡Miss McCain

Miss McCain is the protagonist's second-grade teacher, who had a significant impact on his life. The video's narrative includes a heartwarming surprise for her, involving a real dinosaur fossil and a financial gift, illustrating the lasting influence teachers can have on their students and the importance of acknowledging their contributions.

Highlights

Discovery of a 70 million year old dinosaur fossil in the Texan desert.

The importance of proper excavation techniques and the role of a paleontologist.

The journey to Big Bend, a region known for its rich dinosaur fossil finds.

Unexpected challenges during the road trip, including a fun drink mishap.

Arrival at the fossil site and meeting with paleontologist Andre from Pawn Stars.

The process of scouting a fossil site using geological surveys.

Excavation begins with the search for a good spot and the use of basic tools.

Unexpected find of sulfur during the excavation process.

The discovery of an ancient turtle shell fossil.

The emotional backstory of the narrator's connection to paleontology and a second-grade teacher.

The strategy for carefully extracting the turtle shell fossil.

Andre's discovery of a dinosaur vertebrae, sparking excitement.

The potential identification of a dinosaur rib and skull fragment.

The significance of finding a Tyrannosaurus tooth amidst the excavation.

The meticulous process of wrapping and preserving the fossils for transport.

A surprise dinner with Andre and a cowboy named Morris.

The emotional reunion and surprise for Miss McCain with a real dinosaur fossil and a $10,000 check.

The narrator's reflection on the impact of a supportive teacher and the joy of paleontology.

Transcripts

this is a 70 million year old dinosaur

fossil

look a long time ago dinosaurs roamed

the Earth and one day bada bing bada

boom they died for centuries we've been

on the hunt for their remains this is a

big responsibility you can't just let a

random underprepared guy excavate a rich

dinosaur fossil site

I'm on a road trip to the middle of the

Texan desert Big Bend where countless

dinosaur fossils have been found I will

hopefully be returning home in the next

48 hours with a dinosaur fossil in the

front seat of this luxury vehicle

okay now you're probably wondering what

car I'm driving I'll get a clip so

here's what happened on my way on hour

three I got a fun drink and asked

someone to take a photo of my outfit

didn't go fully to plan dinosaurs

on hour six I got to the desert that's

exciting on hour seven I got another fun

drink cheers have a good one you hear

about the dinosaurs out there oh yeah

yeah I'm gonna find them on hour eight I

drank it and drove the car I think I see

a dinosaur on that mountain sorry I

don't know just having fun with this

edit an hour nine I finally got to our

fossil site Andre

good good to see you

this is Andre a real paleontologist and

the dinosaur expert from Pawn Stars

that's right he was on TV they're

dinosaurs here yes

and yes he's allowing me to excavate his

land that is Rich with fossils and he

scouted out this property in particular

using geological surveys I think anybody

can be a paleontologist and that's why

kids are attracted to it but field work

is a different animal and I don't know

if Ryan's really up for it but I guess

we'll find out so here's our game plan

step one search for a good spot to

excavate step two dig pretty

straightforward step three find fossils

embedded in the Rock and step four get a

big juicy burger okay that was my idea

I'm gonna go to bed I'm about to hit the

sack

who invented that as a way to say I'm

going to bed

that's just an example clip I'm not

going to leave the flashlight on all

night seriously I've seen them

I added those bird sound effects there

aren't any birds out here I woke up

super early before the sunrise brushed

my teeth got some yummy breakfast and

then good morning guys good morning I'm

here at Andre's fossil site

um I beat him here I'm getting a little

head start

I kind of know the process of how to

start digging up these fossils so

hopefully when he comes I'll have some

dinosaur skulls

[Music]

with my luck they're gonna find another

fossil down here at some point

oh

the fear is a comprehensive list of our

tools gloves hammer

chisel all right whistle

handsome guy

Andre hey good morning good morning you

ready to do this I got gloves on all

right all right let's do it so Andre

told me to get started in this very

specific spot he's already scouted out

this entire area and this spot right

here runs along an ancient Creek bed yes

there are rumored to be bone fragments

teeth of absolutely massive alligators

turtle shells the list goes on I'm in a

good spot I started by using my chisel I

know I have zero experience whatsoever

but ultimately I'm trying to dig a few

feet down to get to the good stuff and

just a few minutes into my excavation a

rock apparently it's literally just a

rock looks gonna be deceiving and just a

few moments later there is yellow stuff

erupting out of the ground oh yeah look

at that is that sulfur yeah item number

two sulfur that's scary I spent the next

30 minutes or so Excavating looking for

things that could be interesting I feel

like Andre's taught me enough to know

what I'm looking for right there where

you were digging below that Ridge I

think I see the cross section of a

turtle shell you're kidding no that's a

turtle dude

no way find a number three an ancient

turtle shell now that I found the fossil

of a turtle that literally roamed the

Earth with Dinosaurs you may be

wondering why I'm out here in the first

place

when I was in the second grade I brought

in a fossil for show and tell it was

this fake fossil through the compulsive

life I've gone my entire life haunted by

the fact that I lied to my favorite

teacher that teacher's name was Miss

McCain so I've spent the last three

months setting up this fake website for

Miss McCain to enter into a ten thousand

dollar second grade teacher sweepstakes

My Name Is Sheree McCain I'm a teacher

and currently a reading facilitator when

in reality I want to surprise her with a

real dinosaur fossil and ten thousand

dollars so with Miss McCain in mind and

Andre's advice I started gluing the edge

of this turtle shell just to make sure

it doesn't break under calls this the

cone of opportunity we're gonna dig

around the turtle fossil and then

ultimately we're just gonna pull it out

and then excavate from there okay let's

do this I spend the next 45 minutes with

Andre just digging around this ancient

turtle shell this is coming out of the

ground alright it's really forming right

here we're making some serious progress

at least that's until I found fossil

number five this looks like part of an

aquatic plant a plant fossil and while

I've been digging for this turtle

Michelle Andre literally just found a

dinosaur vertebrae oh my gosh

so Andre is going back to his lab

because he literally just found a

dinosaur vertebrae now I'm kind of

feeling uh some fomo I really want to

find my own dinosaur fossil and my

biggest hunt right now is that this

right here

is a dinosaur rib

but this right here is also a turtle

shell and this is a turtle shell so this

whole area is like rich with fossils I'm

gonna keep working on this hopefully we

got ourselves a T-rex or something

foreign

[Music]

Andre really started taking my cone of

opportunity seriously and he's gonna

make sure I get it out safely wow

there's a turtle shell oh my gosh here's

that big log wow that's beautiful right

there that is so crazy that's a turtle

shell yeah another turtle shell Andre's

fairly confident this bone right here is

a dinosaur rib so we're gluing it to

preserve it for extraction and transport

later so this area right here is what we

have left to extract and while I was

searching I saw another fossil is this

founder now yeah that's more bones

really yeah holy smoke so this is big

yeah this is real big we broke off more

rock to see what we have here and Andre

was shocked at what we found it looks

like skull you're kidding no it it

really looks Scully anytime you start

getting flat Webby bones with all these

little oh my goodness I could tell at

this point Andre was taking this

potential dinosaur skull very seriously

I let him take over I'm not trying to

break a potential new dinosaur species

skull that's not what I had planned with

my weekend there was actually another

turtle fossil on the skull which is

pretty much proof that this was a creek

bed where all kinds of bone fragments

fossilized oh my gosh Come here look at

this is that a tooth it's a

tyrannosaurus

it was actually a dinosaur kiss tooth

whoa whoa whoa why is there sad music

playing no this is so awesome this is

crazy these guys used to eat T-Rexes

okay as we were trying to excavate this

rock that contained a dinosaur skull

fragment a dinosaur's tooth and more

turtle shells than Super Mario Bros

deluxe edition I am truly feeling like a

kid again this is so much fun I am

playing in dirt but it's ancient dirt

which is sick okay there's a lot of dirt

on the back talk to me Andre right dude

perfectly exposed we're gonna wrap this

whole block this is going to the lab

we're going to prep all these out

individually it's going to be an

incredible spread okay okay I love it so

next Andrea and I wrapped up our fossils

he's taking the skull back to the lab

understandable as for me this is the

bone that I'm gonna bring home to miss

McCain we need to split this rock

because this dinosaur rib bone is in

here but yeah we could totally destroy

it to it

let's do it

that's crazy I am yeah I'm actually

freaking out now I'm at a local

restaurant with Andre getting dinner

with him and a crazy cowboy named Morris

you guys don't even want to know about

Morris love you Morris I am now on my

way to where I grew up to surprise my

second grade teacher with a 70 million

year old dinosaur rip and thanks to

Shopify I'm able to surprise her with

something a little bit better

potentially which is going to be

emotional but Shopify isn't easy to use

all-in-one Commerce platform doesn't

matter if you have no idea what you're

doing or if you're an absolute

professional Shopify has got your back

and part of the reason that I love Miss

McCain and she's made such a big impact

on my life it's because in 2017 I was

kind of going through a hard time in my

life a year before that I started this

small business named Neptune and when I

got to college basically I wasn't

allowed to keep competing and doing

YouTube at Neptune ultimately I decided

to leave school which was so hard for me

and Miss McCain after like 10 years of

not talking to her send me this long

heartfelt message encouraging me so much

watch it literally drove me to tears

because I feel like I didn't have very

many encouraging people at that time in

my life and ultimately she just did

exactly what she did for me in second

grade and she just said don't give up

and so a lot of my journey over the last

few years I feel like I can attribute to

her I really feel like we're capable of

so much more and sometimes it takes an

external voice to say that at

shopify.com story of Ryan you can

actually hear my full story and start a

business of your own with Shopify and

now thanks to Shopify I'm going to

surprise Miss McCain with a 70 million

year old dinosaur rib

and a ten thousand dollar check let's go

surprising

and right at the end of this fake

interview we told Miss McCain to turn

around because there's somebody at the

door

hey I gave Miss McCain the real dinosaur

fossil and told her that I had a check

for ten thousand dollars

are you serious that's for you no way oh

my God Ryan so the takeaway for me

paleontology is awesome and you should

always tell your teacher the truth

love you guys bye