This interview originally aired on "In the Moment" on SDPB Radio.
As South Dakota's summer tourism season kicks off, "In the Moment" is checking in across the state on popular attractions and off-the-beaten path adventures.
If you're at a national park on one of those adventures and a strange bone-shaped rock catches your eye, what should you do?
Mattison Shreero says you should report your find if you stumble across a fossil. Shreero, a park ranger and paleontologist at Badlands National Park, outlines the steps a responsible citizen scientist would take:
- Don't take the fossil or try to remove it from the rock.
- Take photographs of the fossil and the surrounding area. Take note of its GPS coordinates or take a screenshot of your phone's compass app.
- Report your find to a park ranger or email the information to the park.
Shreero also discusses what lies in the Badlands rock bed and how to be safe and responsible on a summer fossil hunt.
Learn more about paleontology at Badlands National Park.
