Paleontologist studies the distant past and warns of a troubled future | Montana Untamed podcast

Inside a trench the length of a football field, against the mesmerizing backdrop of the Rocky Mountain Front lay a scattering of granite-hued bone fragments, each exposed for the first time after some 75-80 million years preserved in the Two Medicine Formation’s alkali powder. 

David Trexler, a lifelong resident of nearby Bynum, Montana, and paleontologist for a half-century calls it the most spectacular and complete bone bed he’s ever worked on. 

What Trexler knows so far is that many of the multi-species bones unearthed are from a new breed of duck-billed dinosaur.

Trexler sees more than the Earth’s distant past in dig sites like that along the Front. He also connects the dots to an ominous outcome for humans humans don’t view what he describes as a “ticking time bomb” through a more holistic and urgent lens.

This week Jeff Welsch, editor of Lee Enteprises' Montana newspapers talks about discoveries of creatures of the past and Trexler’s theory about the future.

This podcast is created in partnership across five newsrooms – the Billings Gazette, the Helena Independent Record, the Missoulian, the Montana Standard and the Ravalli-Republic. You can support this podcast and our efforts by subscribing. Visit any of these newspapers’ websites, and click on the Become a Member button at the top of the home page. We appreciate your support of local journalism.