145 - Taylor Endres - Backyard Fossil Adventures - December 9, 2025

Today we welcome the ever-curious Taylor Endres! She shares the fascinating tale of a special find she discovered in her back yard while gardening. Was it a rock? Bone? A fossil? Or something completely different?  It was an odd piece and curiosity compelled her to find out what this weirdly interesting thing could be. Her adventures lead her to various experts, scientists, professors, and even folks at the Smithsonian! For the science nerds - We’ve linked to more info about the Gomphothere and The Ordovician Period in the show notes! A few mentions: Ruby’s Arcade - For your next basement pizza adventure - https://rubysarcade.com/ About Taylor - https://www.facebook.com/taylor.endres.5 Gomphothere - We call it a “Nightmare Elephant” - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomphothere The Ordovician Period was a geological time (approx. 485–444 million years ago) in the Paleozoic Era, known for a massive "Ordovician radiation" of marine life, widespread shallow seas, and the emergence of early land plants and arthropods, ending with the first major mass extinction event (the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction or LOME) caused by glaciation and sea-level drop. https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/ordovician/ordovician.php Andrew Knoll - Harvard Paleontologist - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_H._Knoll