
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Earlier this month, scientists described what they believe to be the world’s first fossil of prehistoric grasshopper eggs. The silver dollar-sized fossil containing more than 50 grasshopper eggs was first found in 2012 at the Sheep Rock Unit at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Eastern Oregon. For several years, the fossil was mistakenly thought to be of ant eggs until Nick Famoso, a paleontologist hired at the monument in 2016, had doubts about their origin. The specimen was sent to the University of Oregon where CT scans helped reveal tell-tale clues about its structure that confirmed it was a grasshopper that laid them nearly 30 million years ago in a forested, temperate landscape very different from its place of discovery today. Famoso is the paleontology program manager and curator at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. He joins us to talk about the significance of this fossil find and the name he helped give it to pay tribute to the first superintendent of the John Day national monument.
By Oregon Public Broadcasting4.5
281281 ratings
Earlier this month, scientists described what they believe to be the world’s first fossil of prehistoric grasshopper eggs. The silver dollar-sized fossil containing more than 50 grasshopper eggs was first found in 2012 at the Sheep Rock Unit at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Eastern Oregon. For several years, the fossil was mistakenly thought to be of ant eggs until Nick Famoso, a paleontologist hired at the monument in 2016, had doubts about their origin. The specimen was sent to the University of Oregon where CT scans helped reveal tell-tale clues about its structure that confirmed it was a grasshopper that laid them nearly 30 million years ago in a forested, temperate landscape very different from its place of discovery today. Famoso is the paleontology program manager and curator at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. He joins us to talk about the significance of this fossil find and the name he helped give it to pay tribute to the first superintendent of the John Day national monument.

38,527 Listeners

6,999 Listeners

9,221 Listeners

4,022 Listeners

25 Listeners

6,434 Listeners

134 Listeners

225 Listeners

113,520 Listeners

32,393 Listeners

4 Listeners

10,335 Listeners

4,211 Listeners

7,255 Listeners

16,486 Listeners

976 Listeners

16,536 Listeners

218 Listeners

10,986 Listeners

1,617 Listeners

619 Listeners