Dr. Dean Lomax

And that's why you see some of the minerals and stuff like that, the shiny bits in there.

That looks insane, doesn't it?

I'm glad that one popped as well because that's the other thing.

Sometimes they don't, and it's often a case of the first one, it might have been that it's just not been preserved very well.

Right.

And that one obviously was preserved better.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

It's one of the best ways to kind of engage with natural history.

And also, you both can keep that.

Oh, wow, we'll put it on the set.

No, no, sorry, Jack.

It's one of the ways in which I think, not just kind of for people getting into paleontology and stuff, but also just understanding and having an appreciation of the natural world.

I remember...

watching many many years ago like i was a massive fan of sir david attenborough as well yeah everybody is right love attenborough and he was was one of the you know as a kid he used to collect fossils locally where he grew up in leicestershire and he said and i always take this philosophy as well as finding something like that you know it is the first time you've ever seen that that was once a living breathing creature during the jurassic age of dinosaurs and stuff it can just spark that curiosity and i always say

Fossils and dinosaurs in particular are a unique gateway into science.

So often for people, for children especially, it's your first introduction to science.

And it might be that, you know, I never kind of go out to like, hey, I want to inspire a whole load of paleontologists.

It's just to get people excited about it and appreciate it.

like i don't know if it sounds cheesy but there is something magical like holding that like a bit like being the first person to ever see that yeah that's nuts isn't it it is it is and and you can find these types of things or other types of fossils anywhere kind of around the world and it's just knowing that having that little bit of information the amount of people that i've kind of obviously led digs and and done kind of like public groups over the years and things and

One in particular always stuck with me was actually in Wyoming.