Kids who are sent to schools to get an education spend their days cooped up in classrooms learning about the world through a textbook. Kids who are homeschooled, on the other hand, get to use the world as their classrooms.
While most kids were sitting in a classroom on a Monday afternoon in late April, an 11-year-old was out with her family fishing and exploring at a local Tennessee lake, which became her classroom for the day. By the end of the afternoon, however, the homeschooler accomplished something most scientists can only dream of…
An Alternative Education
After deciding to homeschool her child, Tammy Taylor made sure her daughter Ryleigh Taylor was learning everything that children in traditional schools were learning. However, she also wanted Ryleigh to not just learn about the world by reading about it in a book, but also by going out and exploring it for herself.
Taking The Lesson Outside
So on a Monday morning in late April 2018, Tammy decided to bring 11-year-old Ryleigh’s lesson outside to enjoy the warm spring weather. That morning, Tammy, Ryleigh, and the rest of their family drove out to Douglas Lake in Dandridge, Tennessee, for a day of fishing and exploring…
A Short Break
While everyone was fishing, Ryleigh decided to take a break from trying to catch a fish and go exploring for a little while instead. “My friend took over the rod because I got tired, and I started to walk over all the rocks,” the 11-year-old said.
A Stroll Along The Shore
Ryleigh went walking by the shore of the lake. She had no idea at the time, but when she stopped trying to catch a fish, she was setting herself up to catch something even rarer and more exciting than anything she could have caught with her fishing pole…
Trying Not To Fall
While on her way back to her parents and her friend, Linda Gail Mayes, the 11-year-old was walking along the rocky shoreline and taking care not to slip on them. “Then on my way back I was looking down so I wouldn’t fall,” Ryleigh explained. While looking down, however, something strange looking caught her attention.
An Exciting Discovery
“I thought it was a bug at first, so I went over to see what it was,” said Ryleigh, who went over to investigate what the weird creature was. When she looked closer, however, she yelled out for her parents 4 times to stop what they were doing and come right away…
A Silly Trick
Ryleigh told everyone that she thought she found a fossil and insisted that they come look. Tammy, however, thought her daughter was trying to trick her. “She was trying to get us to come over and look at it, and I wouldn’t because I just knew it wasn’t…I just thought it was something on the rock,” Tammy said.
The Fossil
When her parents wouldn’t come look at what she found, Ryleigh picked the fossil up and carefully brought it over to them to prove it. “Oh my gosh, that is a fossil,” Tammy said when she finally looked carefully at the fossil, which looked like a large rock at first glance…
A School Project
Ryleigh knew she had found a fossil, but had no idea what it was, so Tammy suggested they take it home as it would be a good school project to try and figure out what it could be. “We bring [the fossil] home and she keeps on to us about calling somebody and finding out what kind it is,” Tammy said.
Making Some Calls
“Even the next morning, she woke up begging us to call. So finally, I got on the phone,” Tammy added. Not knowing who would be able to help them, Tammy called some professors at a local community college that she knew, hoping they would be able to point them in the right direction…
The Associate Professor
“I called Walters State Community College because I know some professors there, and was referred to Dr. Katherine Stone who works with fossils,” Tammy explained. “She referred me to Jim Richards at UT and he sent me to UT’s Associate Professor of Paleobiology Dr. Colin Sumrall.”
A Regular Request
According to Dr. Sumrall, he gets contacted at least once a week by strangers asking him to look at photos of ‘fossils’ that they found for help identifying what creature it is. About 95 percent of the time, however, Sumrall says the so-called fossils are just rocks…
Low Expectations
So when Tammy contacted him about a fossil that her daughter had discovered while walking along the shoreline of Douglas Lake, he was already getting ready to break the news to the 11-year-old that she had just found an ordinary rock.
A Surprising Realization
However, when Sumrall looked at the photo that Tammy had send in her email, he was stunned to see that her 11-year-old daughter had, in fact, found a fossil. What was even more surprising was that the fossil was actually incredibly rare and incredibly old…
The Trilobite
Sumrall asked Tammy and Ryleigh to send more detailed photos of the fossil, and this time place it next to a measuring tape. After reviewing the new photos, Sumrall told the 11-year-old that she managed to find the fossil of a 475-million-year-old trilobite, an arachnomorph arthropod that went extinct before dinosaurs walked the earth.
A 475-Million-Year-Old Discovery
According to Sumrall, trilobites would relate closest to present-day horseshoe crabs. “She laughed and was jumping,” Tammy said of Ryleigh’s reaction after finding out what she found. “That’s hard to take in… 475 million years, that’s a long time.” Ryleigh’s excitement only grew when Sumrall told her just how rare her discovery was…
As Old As It Gets
“It’s actually fairly unusual for someone to find a fossil,” said Sumrall, who didn’t find a fossil until he was 20 years old. Sumrall then explained that fossils of trilobites are some of the oldest you can find. “That’s about as old as you can get,” Sumrall said. “The oldest fossils are maybe a little older than that.”
An Intact Specimen
Not only was Ryleigh’s discovery rare because of its age, but fossils of trilobites are rarely ever still intact. “Typically when we look at fossils of trilobites, they decay when they grow. So what happens is, when the trilobite skeleton just crumbles into hundreds of little pieces,” Sumrall explained…
A Budding Paleontologist
“To find one where all the pieces are intact, it’s actually a pretty lucky find,” Sumrall added. While the fossil is still in Ryleigh’s possession, she doesn’t want to keep it. Instead, she wants it to go to a museum so other kids can see it. “I hope this will encourage other kids to go outside more instead of spending so much time on their electronics,” said the 11-year-old, who plans on hunting for more fossils.
The Benefits Of Homeschooling
“To find something like that, it could spark this youngster into a whole career. Maybe she’ll become a great paleontologist one day,” said Sumrall. Tammy attributes Ryleigh’s discovery and interest in science and exploring to homeschooling. “I think it’s wonderful because you’re not just sitting in a classroom, you’re actually outdoors, you go, and it’s a hands-on thing, just like this trilobite, this fossil,” Tammy said. “Had she not been outdoors that day, instead of sitting in a classroom, she would have never found this.”
11-Year-Old Catches 475-Million-Year-Old Miracle During Fishing Trip is an article from: LifeDaily