- Can we talk paleontology?
- Well, yeah!
- I know lots of people have questions--
- Absolutely.
- About, yep.
- Yeah! Just to tell you a little bit
about paleontology and caves.
Caves sometimes have very large openings and they go deep,
And they provide a stable environment,
the same temperature and humidity,
and sometimes a lot of animals, large animals and small,
will use the cave as shelter, to hide, or to live
throughout, or just to hang out
and then go outside and bring in dinner.
So, with this,
one of the animals that is found in caves
is a giant ground sloth.
This is a claw, one claw, similar to your fingernail,
or like a cat claw or whatever,
and this was from a giant ground sloth.
These animals became extinct
somewhere around ten thousand years ago,
and they think that humans
actually over-hunted them, because they're large
and slow and they were easy to catch.
Plus, since they were so big,
they threw a really big BBQ all the time,
so it could feed a lot of people.
- That's what I was picturing.
- And so, another animal
that is also found in caves and is big, is an elephant.
Remember I mentioned elephants before?
Mammoths and mastodons did not live in caves,
but the animals that predated on them,
or would capture them and kill them,
would actually bring body parts in
to feed its family.
So, we'll find a lot of this
fossil material from elephants.
- Have we ever found any fossilized toothbrushes?
Cuz that thing is huge.
- Um, no, not yet. But we'll keep looking.
(laughter)
- You keep on digging.
Thank you so much, Barb.
Another online question.
This actually is from some of our friends in Ohio.
From Maddux, a third grader
from Absorbent Minds Montessori School in Ohio.
The question is, do you collect rocks in caves
and sell them?
Do you do the same with fossils?
- Oh, no, we don't.
- No, not at all.
- Barb, you wanna talk about fossils?
- Oh, well, sure.
It actually depends on who owns the cave.
So, if it's federal--
owned by or managed by a federal land management agency--
that means the cave belongs to you.
And so, we do not sell any fossils
or anything from the cave.
However, if it's from a private cave--
private ownership--
then they may make that decision
to sell material that's from the cave.
But otherwise, for fossils, that's the answer.
- We like the Leave no Trace Principles, right?
So, leave everything where you found it.
Don't take anything out of the cave with you.
Have no impact other than just your footprints.
So, in Forest Service and National Park Service caves,
leave everything where it is.
Appreciate it where it is
so that somebody coming after you
can do the same thing.
- And be sure not to touch the formations
because they're very sensitive
and the oils from your hands
can prevent those stalagmites or stalactites from growing.
So, we want to be very careful when we're in a cave
not to knock down things, not to break things.
And if we see somebody that is breaking things,
let an adult know.
Let a park ranger know,
or Forest Service park employee,
so that they can, you know, do the right thing.
Because we need to protect those resources
for future generations.