A Student Split Open a Rock — and Found Something Buried for 52 Million Years

A summer field course in Wyoming turned into something far bigger than a student fossil hunt. In the Green River Formation, a California high school student taking part in the University of Chicago and Field Museum’s Stones and Bones program uncovered the remarkably complete skull of a giant gar fish preserved for 52 million years.

The discovery was reported by the University of Chicago in 2019, with Lance Grande of the Field Museum describing the formation as a site that repeatedly produces important fossils, including species new to science and specimens that reshape understanding of ancient ecosystems. This find stood out because it was not a small fish impression in stone, but the skull of a predator that would have been at least 8 feet long.