Prehistoric Road Trip

Emily Graslie talks to Kylie Ferguson, who found the fossilized skull of a nimravid in Badlands National Park as a third grader. The nimravid is distantly related to the saber-toothed cat – but no less ferocious. Kylie revisits the skull she found years ago and learns that it contains all the makings of a 32-million-year-old murder mystery.

Join Emily as she continues her adventure, discovering surprising truths hidden in the fossil record. Meanwhile, scientists studying our planet’s past are revealing clues about its future.

Cruise with Emily into the Cretaceous, when astonishing creatures like T. rex dominated the planet. But what happened to these tremendous animals? And how did other life forms survive an apocalyptic asteroid crash into Earth 66 million years ago?

North Dakota paleontologist Dr. Clint Boyd shows Emily Graslie a layer of clay that reveals the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event – the day an asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs. Dr. Boyd explains what clues the soil offers about that fateful day.

Travel with Emily through billions of years of Earth’s history to meet some of its earliest life forms, from primitive bacteria to giant reptiles and many surprising creatures in between.

Emily Graslie works with Dr. Eileen Grogan to look for fossil fish in Montana – and that’s no easy task. Dr. Grogan shares her most memorable fossil-hunting moment when she happened upon an ancient shark fossil. Emily also gets to experience what ancient shark liver oil smells like.