6-year-old boy finds rare fossil
By Mary Regli
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GRETNA, Nebraska (KETV) — A 6-year-old boy in Nebraska made history this summer by discovering a rare fossil at Schramm Park State Recreation Area, the first of its kind found in the state in more than 55 years.
“I found a fossil!” Leo Youngdahl said. “When I was a baby, we would go out in nature, and I would be picking up rocks and putting them in the bucket.”
Now older, Leo has learned to identify his findings, saying, “Agates and gemstones and fossils.”
Over the years, Leo has discovered several fossils, including brachiopods and shell fossils. But this summer, he found something entirely new.
“This is kind of where I found around right about here,” Leo said, pointing to the spot.
He initially thought the fossil resembled “an upside-down snake shed.”
Kelly Ekue, an educator at Schramm Park, was surprised by the discovery.
“Normally, we see six different kinds of fossils here,” Ekue said. “I looked at it, and I was like, okay, that’s really weird. It looks like a fish. And so we don’t have any vertebrates here in our fossil outcrops.”
Local geologists identified the fossil as a conulariid, a type of jellyfish that lived in Nebraska between 200 million and 500 million years ago, when part of the state was underwater. Their soft bodies made them difficult to preserve.
“Certainly for Nebraska history, it’s important that we’ve found one. And the last ones that we found on record were from the 1970s,” Ekue said.
Leo’s discovery is now in the care of Schramm Park, where it is being used to educate other children. Meanwhile, Leo remains eager to uncover more fossils.
“Fossils are cool. And I would like to find out all about the things that lived before, because I kind of don’t know what all of them are called,” he said.
For those looking to find fossils, Leo shared his advice: “I look out for rocks that have kind of lots of nooks and crannies because I think they have more fossils.”
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