Lifestyle
Bones, teeth and really old rocks: How finding fossils takes me out of myself
I grew up gazing at fossils in pure historical past museums. Once I found that I might discover them myself, the prehistoric world of my childhood goals was abruptly extra accessible. A few of my favourite finds are these Cambrian trilobites from Utah.
Photograph illustration by Meredith Rizzo/NPR
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Photograph illustration by Meredith Rizzo/NPR
I grew up gazing at fossils in pure historical past museums. Once I found that I might discover them myself, the prehistoric world of my childhood goals was abruptly extra accessible. A few of my favourite finds are these Cambrian trilobites from Utah.
Photograph illustration by Meredith Rizzo/NPR
Not lengthy into my profession in journalism — in all probability on my sixth deadline of the week — I noticed I used to be in want of some gradual, low-stakes journey. The sort of enjoyable that requires little planning, zero stress, a little bit of momentum, and plenty of time. Deep, meditative time. The sort of time you usually do not get in a newsroom.
And that is after I found a secret. Washington, D.C., town the place I dwell, is filled with hidden fossils.
Meredith Rizzo is a visible journalist on the science desk at NPR.
Lewis Wyman
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Lewis Wyman
The District was, all jokes apart, a lush swamp again within the Cretaceous interval. Dinosaurs, muck-dwelling mollusks and megalodons patrolled the humid wetland in areas the place busy congressional staffers now line up for lunch at meals vehicles. And periodically, usually serendipitously, the traces of that historical world emerge.
In 1898, dinosaur bones had been by accident uncovered throughout sewer work down the road from the Capitol constructing. When paleontologists could not establish the dinosaur, they took to calling it Capitalsaurus — a reputation that caught and finally turned the official dinosaur of D.C. Only a quick drive north, a sandstone slab was found in a NASA car parking zone containing a slew of 100 million-year-old dinosaur and mammal prints, together with a fossilized pile of poop — a outstanding discover contemplating the novice fossil hunter who discovered it simply occurred to be dropping his spouse off at work when it caught his eye in 2012. There are even secret fossils nestled throughout the limestone flooring and columns of D.C.’s federal buildings.
Fossils, it appears, are a humble, hidden fixed within the metropolis’s bustling ecosystem. And in my overstimulated life, in search of out a couple of constants on the planet sounded fairly good.
Among the extra frequent fossils discovered simply exterior of D.C. embody these – shark tooth, fossilized snail shell sediment, and the ridged stays of ray tooth plates.
Photograph illustration by Meredith Rizzo/NPR
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Photograph illustration by Meredith Rizzo/NPR
Among the extra frequent fossils discovered simply exterior of D.C. embody these – shark tooth, fossilized snail shell sediment, and the ridged stays of ray tooth plates.
Photograph illustration by Meredith Rizzo/NPR
Studying to see the swamp
It helps that fossil looking bodily removes me from town. Most of the native websites are inside 80 miles south of the capital alongside the Potomac River and a brief mile-long hike to the shoreline. The alertness I carry with me in an everyday week — biking via site visitors, tending to the immediacy of news-related e mail pings or Slack notifications — redirects with every step ahead. By the point I attain the river’s edge, I’ve discovered the area to breathe once more. I can sit on a fallen tree and watch the water. However there’s hidden ghosts ready to be seen.
Alongside the shore, fossils which can be 50 million years previous repeatedly peek out of the layered panorama. It is only a matter of figuring out what to search for — the shiny grey tip of a prehistoric shark tooth or the darkish patterned ridges of a ray tooth plate. Spiral porous rocks are maybe essentially the most conspicuous — they’re what stays of prehistoric snail shells.
Westmoreland State Park in Virginia has a fossil seaside the place guests can wade and sift for fossils which have fallen out of the cliffs.
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Westmoreland State Park in Virginia has a fossil seaside the place guests can wade and sift for fossils which have fallen out of the cliffs.
Meredith Rizzo/NPR
It is a visible sport, requiring endurance and focus. Recognizing recognizable shapes and textures within the wild is akin to meditating over a damaged puzzle scattered within the sediment. I am in search of the uncommon finish items.
Typically I do not spot something. Different days, possibly following a latest storm, I am unable to cease seeing them — tooth, shell, tooth, bone? — and I fall into a gradual, stream state.
My crummy cell service on this nook of the river holds again the remainder of the world whereas I am discovering one other one. The fossils aren’t demanding my instant consideration. They don’t have anything however time.
Pursuing the inland sea
Once I had collected numerous prehistoric shells and shark’s tooth round D.C., my curiosity led me in the hunt for deeper time and westward locations. I had learn that 500-million-year-old fossils had been considerably simple to search out in elements of western Utah.
Strolling via the shale quarry in Delta, Utah, in 2017.
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Strolling via the shale quarry in Delta, Utah, in 2017.
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About 180 miles south of Salt Lake Metropolis, my associate and I arrived at a distant quarry wealthy with Cambrian-era trilobites, early marine invertebrates that scuttled throughout the inland seabed and went extinct 252 million years in the past. Guests will pay to rigorously break up shale — gentle, chalky rock — with a hammer and chisel in the hunt for pockets of this fossilized life. Our information confirmed us the ropes after which off we went into the dig website.
It did not take lengthy. At first we discovered tiny, dime-sized trilobites. They had been spectacular with intricate tell-tale cheeks — simply small. Then, bigger trilobites emerged, however items of them — shattered midsections or fragmented heads.
Higher left, clockwise: Whereas I photographed a few of the prehistoric finds, a quarry information prepped one fossil by sanding the shale away from the preserved stays.
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Higher left, clockwise: Whereas I photographed a few of the prehistoric finds, a quarry information prepped one fossil by sanding the shale away from the preserved stays.
Meredith Rizzo/NPR
Trilobites molted throughout their lives. They shed their tough outer shell, revealing delicate new our bodies that took time to harden once more. In a deadly sea, the molting course of left them weak to predators however allowed them to develop. It was a dangerous evolutionary flip. Many trilobite fossils are literally the discarded remnants of the molting stage. And little doubt that is plenty of what we had been discovering too.
However sooner or later thousands and thousands of years in the past, a bottle cap-sized trilobite got here to relaxation on the murky seafloor. And there it sat till I got here knocking its shale tomb open, revealing the proof of its life imprinted in brittle rock.
Faucet or click on to rotate. Reverse pinch to zoom in.
Bringing the time journey house
In some unspecified time in the future throughout a visit, there comes a time whenever you notice you have to return house and slot again into the routines you’d left. The trilobites went up on the shelf at house. I took the bottle cap trilobite fossil into the newsroom and positioned it alongside the ledge of my cubicle. It is a distraction I need to discover all through the day. What stresses nudged at its consideration? What did it appear like bustling throughout the silty sea ground?
Though my life in D.C. nonetheless requires my direct and instant focus, turning over that piece of rock is a option to transport me exterior of a second and to a for much longer narrative — a time earlier than people arrived and constructed cities on prime of swamps and set deadlines for deliverables.
Serious about geological time makes me really feel temporary and noteworthy, just like the little trilobite. I notice plenty of worrying trivialities would not matter. And some essential issues actually do.
My fearful thoughts settles down. My perspective shifts. Perhaps I needn’t take that cellphone name proper this minute.
Typically it is useful to contemplate the lifetime of slightly arthropod, puttering alongside a seabed a very long time in the past.
These tiny trilobite fossils from Utah are smaller than a centimeter.
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Photograph illustration by Meredith Rizzo/NPR
These tiny trilobite fossils from Utah are smaller than a centimeter.
Photograph illustration by Meredith Rizzo/NPR
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Earlier this year, my partner, two kids and I got stuck in Los Angeles for three days. We were on a layover, trying to get to Hawaii for a family reunion. But the airline kept canceling our next flights. It was a nightmare — we had no idea when we’d ever get to leave L.A.
After we finally got to Hawaii and back, and spent weeks fighting credit card charges for all those canceled flights, I wondered: What’s the best way to handle a sudden flight delay or cancellation? How do I avoid this situation in the future?
Air travel is getting notably worse. Data from the Department of Transportation shows an increase in canceled flights throughout 2024, when compared with the previous two years.
Travel experts explain how to make rebooking flights less painful — and what you can do to ensure your next trip goes smoothly.
Multitask! While standing in line, rebook your flight online
While standing in line, open up the airline app and rebook yourself, says travel reporter Chris Dong.
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Most people react to a cancellation by heading straight to the nearest customer service desk and queuing up to rebook their flight. The problem with that approach? Everyone else on your flight is doing that too.
“You have 300 people getting off the plane. There’s maybe one, two people trying to help everyone. That clearly is the least efficient way,” says travel reporter Chris Dong.
While standing in line, open up the airline app and rebook yourself, he says. There’s often a seamless way to get it done, no customer service conversation necessary. And online booking will likely solve your problem much quicker than waiting to get help from an agent.
Try calling the customer service hotline in another language.
If you can’t rebook online and need to speak to an agent, think outside the box. Do you speak another language? If so, try calling the number for the airline in that language, Dong says. It can save you time because it’s likely less flooded than the English-language line.
See if an agent can help you at the airport lounge.
If you have a travel credit card that gives you lounge access, head there to get one-on-one customer service. “Lounge agents are much more inclined to help you and are usually not as short-staffed,” Dong says. “That can get you help quickly.”
If you don’t already have lounge access, see if you can purchase a day pass on-site. It may be well worth it depending on your flight cost and timeline.
Know what you’re entitled to from the airline.
Many major airlines have committed to giving passengers cost-free rebooking, meal vouchers, hotel accommodations, hotel transportation and more.
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Most airlines in the U.S. aren’t required to compensate you for delays or cancellations unless it’s the airline’s fault (think maintenance issues or staffing problems).
To find out what you’re entitled to, check the Department of Transportation’s Airline Cancellation and Delay Dashboard. Many major airlines have committed to giving passengers cost-free rebooking, meal vouchers, hotel accommodations, hotel transportation and more.
Once you know what your airline offers, say, a hotel, you can rest easy about what to do that night — and focus on rebooking for the next day.
Check what your travel insurance covers.
Once you know what your airline will cover, check what your travel insurance will cover. Many credit cards include some travel insurance coverage, which can provide everything from trip cancellation to luggage insurance to any medical needs that might arise en route.
Pro-tip from Eulanda Osagiede, director of operations at Black Travel Alliance and chief operations officer at Black Travel Summit: The next time you buy your travel insurance, pick a plan through an independent company. She recommends Cover For You or Faye, rather than opting into the generic insurance offered by your airline. You’ll get better deals, she says.
Choose a flight earlier in the day.
Early morning flights are your best bet to avoid delays or cancellations, Dong says.
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Industrial Donut Picks/Getty Images/iStockphoto
If you have flight time options when rebooking or flexibility in your travel schedule, choose the early-morning flight. They’re your best bet to avoid delays or cancellations, Dong says.
If you’re on the first flight out, there’s little chance you’ll have to wait for that aircraft coming in from another city because it’s likely been sitting at the airport overnight.
Don’t let yourself get stranded. Keep moving.
If your airline can’t quickly rebook you, look for creative ways to get to your final destination. Buy a one-way ticket on another airline (ask for reimbursement later), skip the flight altogether and take a train or bus, or fly into a nearby city and drive the rest of the way.
“Don’t just be stuck,” Dong says. “As long as you get to a destination that’s closer to you, you’re better off. Figure it out when you get there.”
Book direct.
Beware of using a third party to book your flights. I bought my family’s Hawaii tickets on a third-party site, and when my rebooked Hawaii flight was re-canceled, the third-party site wouldn’t help me. What’s more, the airline didn’t even know the third-party site had told me I was rebooked (because apparently I never was).
“Book direct, always,” Dong says, to set yourself up for success and assistance in case of delays or cancellations. “In terms of pricing, there usually shouldn’t be a difference.”
If you want refunds or flight credits, be nice to your customer service rep.
Your best bet to get a refund from the airline is to do some serious sweet talking, says Eulanda Osagiede, director of operations at Black Travel Alliance and chief operations officer at Black Travel Summit.
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If you originally booked a refundable ticket directly with your airline, getting your money back should be no problem. But if, like me, you didn’t (oops), your best bet to get that refund is some serious sweet-talking, Osagiede says.
Osagiede says she’s gotten flight credits on canceled, non-refundable, zero-flight-credit trips just by being “very nice, very friendly” with the customer service representative on the phone. So don’t start yelling at them. Treating reps like the human beings they are can make all the difference.
Avoid non-refundable tickets.
And speaking of non-refundable tickets, avoid them if you can, Osagiede says. Yes, they are cheaper, but they are a risk. They do “not offer refunds or rescheduling, so you’re rolling the dice.”
As for me, I did eventually get my money back — but not without weeks of emails, phone calls and frustration. Next time, I’ll book directly with the airline, get travel insurance and have a backup plan in mind. If nothing else, getting stranded taught me that what’s worse than a canceled flight is not knowing what to do next.
This story was edited by Malaka Gharib. The visual editor is Beck Harlan. We’d love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.
Listen to Life Kit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram: @nprlifekit.
Dakota Johnson in Materialists.
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Dakota Johnson in Materialists.
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Should you date for love or financial security? That’s the central premise of the new movie Materialists. It stars Dakota Johnson at the center of a love triangle with Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans, and is directed by Celine Song (Past Lives).
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