Paleontologist Makes "Game-Changing" Fossil Discovery
The Denver Basin preserves a pristine record of ecosystem recovery.
At Corral Bluffs, Colorado, paleontologist Tyler Lyson discovers rare mammal fossils that paint a picture of the first million years after an asteroid killed the dinosaurs.
Paleontologist Makes "Game-Changing" Fossil Discovery
Published: October 25, 2019
Tyler Lyson: I grew up in basically the middle of nowhere in Southwestern North Dakota. But this area just happened to be the epicenter for understanding the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Everything alive today can trace its ancestry back to the survivors of this mass extinction event — the extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
But I've always been fascinated, I've always been interested in the recovery.
…going from the age of the dinosaurs to the Modern Age, the Age of the Mammals.
When I moved here to Colorado, I was really excited to move to Denver. Denver is situated right in the middle of the Denver Basin which just happens to preserve the recovery of an ecosystem.
There's only a few places in the world where we have the rocks of the right age.
I think the discovery that we have here in Colorado is a complete game changer.
Simply because we have amazing vertebrates, amazing plants, and an amazing timeline.So those three things together, it's a bit like the holy trinity of paleontology.
We are and will continue to make some major progress in understanding the recovery.
It’s, I mean, amazing.
