Emily Bzdyk and a friend were combing a deserted Maryland beach late on a Saturday night earlier this month when the beam of her headlamp cut across what looked like a bone near the rippling tide line.
Maryland
Late at night on a deserted beach, she found a 15 million-year-old fossil
The sand had pulled back from the clay underlying the beach, Bzdyk said, revealing the fragment. When she took a closer look, she noticed another bit of exposed bone. A pattern emerged: It looked like a large skull, measuring roughly 2½ feet long and weighing about 50 pounds,
“I was very excited when I figured what it might be,” said Bzdyk, a volunteer at the Calvert Marine Museum on Solomons Island. “I had never found anything so put together. I always find fragments of bones.”
Bzdyk snapped a photo and quickly sent it to Stephen Groff, an assistant paleontology collection manager at the museum. The fossil, it turned out, was a remarkably intact skull of a 15 million-year-old, now-extinct dolphin-like creature that once swam in a shallow sea that covered most of Maryland.
Groff said the Aug. 5 discovery was like hitting the fossil jackpot.
Rarely are skulls found in such complete condition, and Bzdyk just happened on it at the right moment, while it was exposed but before it was damaged by waves. What’s more, there’s a small possibility that the specimen is from a yet undiscovered species.
Fewer than 100 skulls of this type have been found, Groff said, and one of this caliber is discovered only once every few years at Calvert Cliffs. He said skulls are scientifically significant because they provide a wealth of information that allows scientists to determine the exact species the skull is from, which is not true of some other bones.
Groff said the skull probably was buried quickly after the animal died, allowing it to remain intact for millions of years.
“With fossils, it’s all a game of chance,” he said. “It’s managed to survive the test of time. … We got lucky here.”
The skull will be put on display at the Calvert Marine Museum.
Bzdyk said she was hunting fossils on a Saturday night because the tide was low, which makes conditions favorable for discoveries. Also important: Her husband was able to watch their two children. Bzdyk said it was the first time she had gone fossil hunting at night.
Bzdyk and Groff said they returned to the scene the next day to excavate the fossil. They dug around the bones but kept them in place and left some sediment on them to keep them intact. They then wrapped the skull in paper towels and plaster medical bandages, called a “field jacket.” They cut the bones out of the beach and transported them to the Calvert Marine Mueseum.
Over the coming months, Bzdyk said, she will painstakingly scrape away the sediment to reveal the complete skull. Visitors can watch her carry on the work. Once finished, experts will be able to determine whether the animal is indeed a new species or a known one.
Groff said the animal is from a group called the odontocetes, which include dolphins, porpoises and toothed whales. There were four known species of odontocetes that roamed the ancient seas near Calvert County, Groff said, and while most likely the fossil belongs to one of those four species, it’s possible it belongs to another.
Such animals had an extended rostrum, or beaklike growth, that allowed them to swat at fish like a swordfish or dig through the mud to look for food, Groff said. They were about 12 to 15 feet long and lived in the area between about 12 and 20 million years ago, during a period known as the Miocene. Groff said he did not know why the animals went extinct.
“This is a notable find,” he said.
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Maryland
Maryland, D.C. and Virginia get more money for house calls for moms and infants – WTOP News
![Maryland, D.C. and Virginia get more money for house calls for moms and infants – WTOP News Maryland, D.C. and Virginia get more money for house calls for moms and infants – WTOP News](https://wtop.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/GettyImages-1304284918-scaled.jpg)
The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration will provide an additional $23.1 million in federal aid to the agency’s national Home Visiting Program in the District, Maryland and Virginia.
More money is on the way for a home-visiting health care program designed to provide better care for pregnant women, new parents and infants.
The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced an additional $23.1 million in federal aid to the agency’s national Home Visiting Program in the District, Maryland and Virginia.
The extra money is the first time in a decade that the program has received an increase in federal funds, HRSA administrator Carol Johnson said.
“What those resources mean is that we’re able to support nurses, social workers and trained home visitors, and help with those early days of being a new parent,” Johnson said. “All of this has been shown to really make a difference in kids’ outcomes. Kids are so much stronger because they get these kinds of supports.”
Johnson said the program’s success hinges on convenient health visits in a comfortable at-home setting.
“When you’re a new parent, if you have to take off from work and take a few buses to get to an appointment, you’re probably not going to do it,” she said. “But if that person comes to your house and they’re full of resources and knowledge, it’s going to make a huge difference to you.”
Rockville, Maryland-based HRSA spearheads the national program, teaming up with local health organizations to target and reach parents.
Home health care workers can provide breastfeeding support, safe sleep tips and developmental screening for babies. They can even help parents find key services like affordable child care or job and educational opportunities.
“It’s changed my life,” past program participant Fatima Ray said.
Ray said she was introduced to the program in 2015 when she needed help with her infant daughter. She and her husband were first-time parents and stumbled through the first few months with a newborn.
“It felt good, like I had someone on my team,” Ray said. “Those questions you forget to ask the doctor sometimes, she would answer them.”
The experience impressed Ray so much that she became a home health visitor. She is the maternal health coordinator at Primo Center, a homeless shelter for families in Chicago.
“The same care that was given to me, I just want to pass it on,” Ray told WTOP. “I know how much it made a difference in my life. Home visiting matters.”
President Joseph Biden signed bipartisan legislation in 2022 that doubles funding for the program over five years. The move was part of a campaign promise to lower risks linked to pregnancy and improve maternal health, especially among women in rural, tribal and low-income communities.
The national home visiting program will receive $440 million Maryland’s local programs will get $10 million of those funds. Virginia is slated to receive $11 million and D.C.’s home visiting programs will see a $2.5 million increase.
“This will push home visiting forward a lot more,” Ray said. “It’s just going to help tremendously.”
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Maryland
Watch Aidan Chiles, Nick Marsh talk MSU win over Maryland
![Watch Aidan Chiles, Nick Marsh talk MSU win over Maryland Watch Aidan Chiles, Nick Marsh talk MSU win over Maryland](https://spartanswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2024/09/USATSI_24177867.jpg?w=1024&h=576&crop=1)
Michigan State won a big time road game over Maryland, improving their record to 2-0, and giving head coach Jonathan Smith his first Big Ten conference victory as the head man of the Spartans.
A big part of that win was the connection between Aidan Chiles and Nick Marsh, and more specifically their 77-yard touchdown connection tying the game 24-24 late in the fourth quarter.
Chiles and Marsh spoke to the media after the team’s win, which you can watch via Spartan Mag on YouTube:
Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Cory Linsner on X @Cory_Linsner
Maryland
16-year-old arrested after 15-year-old fatally shot in Maryland high school bathroom
![16-year-old arrested after 15-year-old fatally shot in Maryland high school bathroom 16-year-old arrested after 15-year-old fatally shot in Maryland high school bathroom](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/09/07/19/SEI220433454.jpg?quality=75&width=1200&auto=webp)
A 16-year-old student at a high school in Maryland has been detained after he allegedly shot and killed a 15-year-old student in one of the school’s bathrooms.
The name of the suspect has yet to be released. The victim, Warren Curtis Grant, died following the shooting at Joppatowne High School. Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler made the announcement at a press briefing.
The suspect fled the scene but was detained close by just minutes later.
“He has yet to be charged but will be charged, and at the time those charges are preferred as an adult, we will release the name of the suspect,” Gahler told the press, according to The Guardian.
The sheriff added that his office has handled more than 10 cases in the last two years “where the suspect was either the victim, witness or the suspect in an incident handled by the Harford county sheriff’s office.”
![A member of the Harford County Sheriff's department tries to clear the way for an emergency vehicle as it heads toward Joppatowne High School after a shooting at the school, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in Joppatowne, Md](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/09/07/19/SEI220433454.jpg)
While the sheriff’s office told the public to avoid the area after the shooting, it said that it was an “isolated incident, not an active shooter.”
An “active shooter” situation refers to when a suspect is firing against everyone they see rather than targeting a particular person.
An area church was used as a reunification center for students and their parents. The school is located about 20 miles northeast of Baltimore.
Gahler noted that more than 100 law enforcement officials responded to the scene.
The fight at Joppatowne High School took place just two days after the shooting at a high school outside Atlanta, Georgia where a 14-year-old shot and killed four people.
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