Now you can catch Fossil Lake fish with a bulldozer

By far the most common fossils from Fossil Lake are fishes. Union Pacific Railroad workers first dug them up over 100 years ago. Scientists and commercial and amateur collectors still quarry thousands from the fossil-rich limestone each year.

Museum scientist savors rotten fishes

Of the millions of fishes at Fossil Lake, Field Museum scientist Lance Grande likes the rotten ones best. Decomposition gases burst apart rotting fish skeletons, exposing details of hidden bones in their skulls. Lance compares these bones in different fishes to study their evolutionary relationships.

Photos courtesy of Lance Grande and Nyuta Yamashita.