[narrator] This time on the supersized
season finale of Dino Hunters.
[growling]
[narrator] In Montana...
Yeah, crazy sucker, you made it.
[narrator] Clayton takes on an epic
tric skull extraction.
[Clayton] Definitely rough country.
Let's roll this thing.
It's just gonna be impossible to get equipment
anywhere close to these two skulls.
[Shana] Oh, it's gonna go... Oh, my God.
[Nate] Horses and helicopters...
[Clayton] And dinosaurs. What could go wrong?
Over this thing. Over this thing.
No! Over this!
Uh. [bleep].
Okay.
[narrator] Then, in New Mexico.
[Andre] Get it, Rex.
[narrator] It's do or die for Andre and his team
at the mammoth dig site.
[Andre] We've got this crazy cold front
blowing in from the north.
Maybe up to a foot of snow.
[narrator] But every shovelful creates even more work.
[Andre] We now have seven bones around the scapula.
[narrator] And they don't wanna come up short for the Abercrombies.
[Andre] Robert!
[woman] We could use some money for the ranch,
but the biggest thing is redemption for Robert's grandpa.
- [gasps] - Wow.
[Mike] Old man winter.
[narrator] In Wyoming...
That's why they call it a skid steer.
[narrator] ...the Harris' bowling crew fight the elements
to finish their ceratopsian dig.
[Aaron] Has to come out today.
That's it, there's no tomorrow.
We need to get it set down.
Get me some help!
- Hey! - Get some help down here.
[narrator] And finally...
[Mike] We've decided to put some money on the Cowboy Rex
to build the head that people can look at.
Hey!
[narrator] Mike gets to meet an old friend face to face.
[Mike] This is just gonna be one of the most
incredible moments in my life.
It's just incredible, Brock.
[Clayton] I got a phone call from a friend.
They asked if we had any good ideas on how to get
a couple of skulls out of some really rough country.
So today we're out here and seeing if we can figure out a plan
to get them out of here.
I'm anxious to get up there and see what we're up against.
[narrator] Winter's quickly approaching in Montana.
[Clayton] I haven't seen another scrap of bone.
[narrator] And Clayton's had an up and down dig season.
I think it's time to cut our losses.
[man] I do have some bad news.
[narrator] The sale of his nanotyrannus
fell through.
[Clayton] I hope this not gonna seat in the warehouse too long.
[Luke] That's the brow horn.
[narrator] But he did uncover some exciting fossils.
Yeah! That's a find!
[Clayton] Oh, wow. Oh, man.
[narrator] Now, with freezing temperatures
expected any day, Clayton's close friend
and fellow dino hunter has an urgent problem.
-Hi, Shana. -Good morning, Clayton. How are you?
Good.
- Got a few dinosaurs you need out of the canyon. - Yeah.
I'm not really sure how to get them out.
We're probably three quarters a mile.
We'll hike to get up to them,
um, but that's where it gets really rough at.
Those badlands could be a challenge.
So I'm anxious to get over there
and see what you're up against and try to help.
Shana Baisch is a go getter.
Her family's been working in paleontology
in Montana for 30 something years.
[Shana] I knew I've enjoyed being outside and I enjoyed rocks,
but I didn't realize I've fallen in love
with the fossils like I do.
Just becomes an addiction where all you wanna do is hunt...
[chuckles] fossils all the time.
[Clayton] I first met Shanna, she was helpful
during the court case on dueling dinosaurs.
We started talking about different evidence
and then moved on to the legislation
and worked together on that.
[narrator] Clayton's first major discovery,
the dueling dinosaurs,
has been caught up in a court battle for years.
[Clayton] My friends and I discovered the dueling dinosaurs in 2006.
They're 100% complete.
It's a plant eater and a meat eater...
[growling]
pretty sure they killed each other.
These obviously weren't friends.
Tells the tory of an epic battle scene
back in the cretaceous.
I actually went broke the year we discovered them.
I put everything I had into the excavation
just to get them out of the ground.
I spent three months of my life and lost 15 lbs.
During that dig, and the money's been flowing for 14 years,
the wrong direction.
[narrator] And just when Clayton and his partners
had a chance to possibly make millions off the unique skeletons,
they ran into disastrous legal problems.
When the word got out that the dueling dinosaurs
were gonna up for auction,
the owners of the mineral rights on the land
decided, "We want a piece of that pie.
I'm gonna go after the mineral rights
and I'm gonna claim they're a mineral and I'm gonna run it through the courts."
The majority of the land in the west
has separate surface owners and mineral owners.
And no one had ever dealt with a mineral estate
when they're finding a dinosaur.
It's pretty obvious that a fossil is not a mineral,
it's a dead animal.
Especially a dinosaur that obviously
was a living, breathing animal.
[growls]
[narrator] But then in 2019,
it was Shana who spearheaded an effort to protect
the owners of the surface rights of the land.
[Clayton] Shana had a good idea,
she said, "Let's run it through the legislation
and get a bill passed and clarify the law
because everybody that had done anything
in paleontology for over 100 years in Montana
suddenly those collections were in jeopardy
if there was a different owner."
Landowners came together, museums came together,
academia came together,
and we all testified to the legislature.
The bill passed unanimously,
there wasn't a vote against it in the House
or the Senate, and the Governor signed it.
[narrator] Now, Clayton might finally be able to recoup
some of his money on his prized specimen.
[Clayton] Seven years later and south of $350,000 to attorneys,
looks like there's light at the end of this tunnel
and I think we're finally ultimately gonna prevail
and be able to sell the dueling dinosaurs.
[narrator] And all thanks in large part to Shana.
[Clayton] Paleontology owes her a favor,
and I'm here to help her out hopefully by getting these skulls out.
Yeah, it's down in here.
There she is.
Oh, you can see it's a skull. Yeah.
This must be the base of a brow horn?
- Yes. - And another horn.
[Shana] Yes.
- [Clayton] It was in that rock, huh? - Yeah.
That thing's gonna weigh, I would guess over a 1,000.
- Would you? - I think so.
Once we get that skull capped, it's gonna be 1,000-1,500 lbs. jacket,
and if y'all are down on the bottom the nasty canyon
that, you know, is barely walkable,
let alone even trying to get a four wheeler in here
or any kind of ATV or anything,
we gotta come up with some rancher ingenuity
and thinking outside the box.
I think I can get some horses to here.
- At least get it rolled over or something. - Mm-hm.
You said you had two skulls, is the other one pretty close here?
Yeah, it's right on the ridge right there.
[Clayton] Definitely rough country.
I mean, there's some big canyons here that are 300 feet deep
and no way to really build a road in here.
I've built a few switchbacks,
but this would be an extreme one.
Looks like it's just gonna be impossible
to get equipment anywhere close to these two skulls.
- Oh, wow. - Isn't that cool?
[Clayton] Wow, this is really neat.
Once I got up on top of the hill and see that one,
I think it's gotta probably be just a little bit bigger jacket,
based on what I saw, by the time they get it pedestaled.
And, jeez, how are you gonna slide it off that hill
without destroying the dinosaur?
This one's on a pinnacle, the other one's in a canyon
and we're still a half a mile from a road,
and it is some rough stuff back here.
You guys got some rugged canyons.
By the time you build a road up here,
that's a week's worth of road building.
We don't have much time.
We may be shut down for the winter.
They're calling for snow,
so we'll just see, but it could just shut us down.
All right.
What if we-- Have you put any thought
into maybe a helicopter to get them out of here?
That'd be interesting.
- [Clayton] Lift them out. - Have you done that before?
I did. I helped a museum recover one
out of a really rough spot one time.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
[Clayton] We just basically laid a net out
and tipped the skull over into the net
and then the helicopter dropped the hook and then up and went away.
That worked very smoothly, and we didn't tear up
any real state down the road to it.
That's a great way to do it.
[narrator] A helicopter is an expense dino hunters
try to avoid but with the remote location
of Shana's quarter million dollar tric skulls
and limited time, it looks like her only option.
That might be the only way to retrieve these things.
Yeah, it should be the easiest way to get them out.
Well, if you guys can get a jacket, we might
- try to do that before the snow flies... - Okay.
- come back and help you. - That would be nice, if we can get it out before winter.
The only way to protect these fossils from mother nature
is to get them in the lab where it's safe.
Where weather can't get to them.
That's our main goal every year, is to get every site we find
finished up before snow hits.
Sometimes winter can just shut us down overnight.
And, you know, we always try to plan for that.
Yeah, let's see if we can make a plan to come out and help you get them out.
[growling]
[Mike] Here comes the cranes, they're headed south for winter.
- Old man winter. - I can't feel my toes.
You get so zoned in on your work
and you forget to stand up and walk around.
This is one of the funnest digs, I think.
You cannot put a knife in the ground
without hitting bone.
Kinda making our dig go longer
when we don't have the time for it,
but it's pretty cool stuff.
[Jake] Gotta kick butt while the kicking butt is good.
[Aaron] Doesn't look good, the next few days
we're supposed to get some snow.
Can't dig bones when the ground's frozen.
Winters in Wyoming, they can come early and fast,
had a really hard frost last night,
puts a little sense of urgency on us.
It's a race. Us against winter.
[Mike] Bringing in the reinforcements, buddy.
We're ready to take out the top of this hill.
[narrator] This season, the Harris bone crew
have gone all in.
[Mike] You've been locked up in the garage for too long!
[narrator] Early on...
[Mike] Get these bones to Brock!
[narrator] Mike took a big gamble to get the skull
of his prized Cowboy Rex prepped
with an eye on finally finding a buyer.
[Mike] This is gonna cost a lot,
but I've got a feeling that it's a pretty good gamble to take.
I cannot-- I absolutely cannot wait
to see this thing.
[Jake] Got bone on top of bone on top of bone.
[narrator] And then...
[Jake] That is a cool looking bone.
[narrator] They spent the entire season
working the ceratopsian site.
This is the other half of the ilium.
Yeehaw!
[narrator] But they're still not sure
if it's a triceratops or a more rare torosaurus.
[Jake] We are in our best dig ever.
We set out to find a complete dinosaur
and found an absolutely phenomenal specimen.
I truly believe that there's...
there's a lot more bones in the bank.
[narrator] Now, to hit 50% of the bone count,
which is scientifically considered a full skeleton,
they'll need one last push to get more bones
out of the ground
before winter weather shuts them down.
They're calling for snow.
[Aaron] The crunch is on.
Wyoming is terrible for winters.
The wind starts howling,
you can have 60 to 80 mph winds.
The snow can drift up, you can have 20 foot drifts.
It's brutal out here.
It's like living in the Arctic.
[Jake] We gotta know when to say when
and get everything jacketed, get it back to the lab,
where it's nice and dry.
Moisture and fossils do not mix.
You're getting a little quiet over there, what's going on?
I'm trying to channel around so we can jacket this
and it's like every stroke that I take off
there's another vert.
Come take a look at this one.
Wow. You get a whole slug of tail verts in there.
Are you serious?
Just completely intact.
[Mike] That is unbelievable.
[Mike laughing]
[Jake] You're on fire. Vert central over there.
[Mike] This is awesome.
We didn't have any tail stuff until now.
[Mike] Oh, yeah. There's gonna be a lot more of them.
The more we try to dig out, the deeper we get.
I guess that's a good problem.
This just adds more and more to the bone count.
We're getting closer to that 50% threshold.
Ooh.
Yes.
[Jake] That looks like a skull piece.
Whoa! Look at that. What I've been looking for.
Now we have two jaws.
That is a jaw!
Whoa! Rexy, we've got jaw!
We got teeth!
[Mike] This is a show piece deluxe.
This is crazy cool.
Like a train of teeth.
Like, tooth, tooth, tooth. Tooth, tooth, tooth, tooth.
Tooth, tooth, tooth, tooth, tooth.
But good quality too.
Now I have to get it out of here.
Oh, I'm super excited to have found both of the jaws.
Pretty amazing pieces.
It's all really amazing.
Looking good. Two jaws, baby.
I like it when things come in twos.
But that is gonna be an awesome piece.
Uh-uh.
Just caught a quick flurry over here.
[Mike] First snow?
Go, go, go, go, go, go!
We're gonna have to hustle a little bit.
[Jake] This is a bad situation.
Snowing.
[Mike] Quick!
[Jake] Got a lot of bones exposed right now.
Use this.
We do not want winter weather to crack everything up.
We need to get them out of here.
[Aaron] This might be our last hurrah!
[Jake] Uh-uh.
Just caught a quick flurry over here.
[Mike] Go, go, go, go, go, go!
We're gonna have to hustle a little bit.
Use this.
[Jake] We need to protect these bones,
get them under jackets and get them out of here.
[Mike] We kinda wanted to finish them up,
but it looks like we're gonna get shut down.
[Jake] We gotta know when to say when and to shut it down
and protect the bones and come back at it next year.
[Aaron] Get ready to get cold and plastery.
I don't want my arms in there any longer than you guys do.
You know one time that bone layer was, you know,
15 feet down in the ground, now it's one foot down
in the ground and it's not a good thing for bones.
Water's gonna get in there, it's gonna freeze
and expand the bones, it's gonna crack everything up.
We do now want winter weather becoming a factor
on these things. They didn't sit
for 66 million years just to have us cover everything up.
[narrator] The large jackets will need to be cured overnight.
So Mike and the crew remove the smaller fossils
and record the bone count.
This is a fiesta resistance. What did they call that?
- [Aaron] Fiesta resistance? - This is the jaw!
Go. Yeah. Perfect.
[Mike] Getting her filled up again.
Bone number 101.
That's 149 and that's 150.
We're just starting to skyrocket.
It's so fun, so fun when you're finding
a lot of bones and getting a lot of this animal.
Still got stuff in the ground,
we kinda wanted to finish them up,
but it looks like we're gonna get shut down.
Okay, we've got 155 coming up.
155?
Yeah, 155.
- That's enough to make up... - We're over 50.
We're approaching 60%.
- Can you believe that? - [Jake] We have a full specimen.
Whoo!
That is why we do what we do.
We absolutely kicked tail on this thing.
[Jake] It is an awesome feeling to set out
to get a whole specimen and then actually meet that.
How would you think that two bones
out on the surface...
Oh, baby.
kinda weathering out on the hill side
would turn into something this big?
It does not happen very often.
The hard work has paid off.
We're gonna get 60, 60 plus. Good work.
- Good work. - The dream team!
Good job.
Everybody, good job.
[Aaron] Yee! Now I'm excited.
[growling]
So. So.
This is my grandpa's house.
This is where my dad was raised.
Right here.
That was my grandpa Robert's house that he built.
That was a two-story house.
The termites got in it. Just got two walls left.
But it was quite a house back in the day.
Four bedrooms down bellow and one bedroom upstairs.
As kids, we thought that was the funnest place ever.
A lot of memories right in there.
Not much of it left now.
[narrator] Just two miles up the road...
[Andre] Okay.
[narrator] ...Andre Lujan and his team
are excavating a 90-year-old mammoth dig site
for the Abercrombie family.
Rex, would you spot them on that end?
- Yeah. - [Andre] I'll spot underneath.
[narrator] To help them restore their legacy
and pay off the ranch.
[Robert] My grandfather was the one that originally
found these mammoths down there.
He thought he might make some money off of them,
but, as it turned out, the museum finally
showed up here, they started digging
and they wouldn't even give my grandpa a job
and all he wanted was a laborers job
just so he could have some money to feed his kids.
[Billie] We could use the money for the ranch,
but the biggest, important thing
is redemption for Robert's grandpa.
One, two, three.
[narrator] The guys have already removed
two smaller tusks.
Whoo!
[narrator] And yesterday...
Whoo, doggie.
[narrator] ...they successfully broke free
from the ground the massive six-foot long
female Columbian mammoth tusk.
It's good! We got it!
Yeah.
[Andre] Just make sure that pallet doesn't drag.
[narrator] Now, they need to get the tusk back to the lab
to clean it up and prep it up for sale.
It's gonna be picturesque cause it's so curved.
It might be worth $50,000, so we'll see.
Whoa!
Up, up, up. Up!
The most challenging part of moving this tusk
on this pallet is now I've got this huge weight out
in front of me. I'm teetering, you know?
As I go over the edge and the last thing I wanna do
is drop this thing on the ground
and shock it really hard.
- Oh. - Wow.
Tilt the tip up.
Good.
Straight back.
Oh... Clear.
[Andre] Oh, how does it look?
[Robert] We're good!
Right on, dude! Whoo!
[Andre] We got the tusk out.
It's time to move on to our next objective
which is getting this enormous scapula out.
[narrator] The scapula is the mammoth's
largest shoulder bone.
And the one that Andre and the crew found
is completely intact.
This extremely rare fossil
could make for another big payday for the Abercrombies.
Get it, Rex.
[narrator] But only if they can get it out
of the ground before winter weather hits.
We've got this crazy cold front blowing in
from the north.
They're calling for maybe up to a foot of snow,
precipitation following that.
[narrator] And with the guys digging in an ancient creek bed,
they'll need plenty of time to prepare the site.
[Andre] Oh, man.
[narrator] They've seen firsthand
how destructive water can be.
It's pretty saturated.
[narrator] And that was before the fossils were exposed.
[Andre] I'm gonna keep my eye on the weather.
Everything flows right into this drainage.
If there is a creek rise, it's gonna totally
flood the site and ruin everything.
Hey, you're supposed to be done finding bones.
Hey, you mind your own business.
Where are all these bones coming from?
Looks pretty decent.
Rib.
And behind that, another rib.
We're working on the scapula, and we find some more bones.
We're just gonna keep moving around the margins
and see if we can't find a way to work at this
and extract it without uncovering
a bunch of new stuff.
Boom. Ribs going in, another little bone here.
There's a little bone back here.
I can't do anything else with this until I take that out.
I can't take that out, so I go back another foot.
[Rex] You dig four inches in, and you find five more bones.
Exactly.
We've got bones in the wall back here, bones over here.
- [Rex] There's another one right here. - What? Where?
[Rex] Right behind you.
We now have seven bones around the scapula.
- [Rex] Oh my God. - Yeah.
At this rate,
the scapula is not coming out of the ground.
We're out here to find bones.
If we're not finding bones, we're just wasting our time.
But in a situation like this,
it's kind of counterproductive.
We're out of time, the winter is upon us.
We're just gonna end up
with more stuff exposed that we can collect.
And another bad situation.
It's never a good idea to leave things
in the field exposed.
I don't wanna leave now but the situation is not good.
That's turning into a bone web.
This is going terrible.
[Rex] Bones on top of bones on top of bones.
We're just gonna end up with more stuff exposed
than we can collect and another bad situation.
That's turning into a bone web.
That's cool.
And I'll be glad to come and dig it in the spring.
[narrator] With the winter storm approaching northeast New Mexico,
Andre and the guys need to leave enough time
to prepare the site and protect the fossils.
The worst thing we can do is expose these bones
that have been protected in the ground for thousands of years
and leave them exposed over the winter.
I'm gonna call it, dude.
I mean, I think that's... that's all we can do.
Yeah, I agree.
[Andre] After our seventh bone,
I made the command decision
that we need to stop trying to excavate the scapula.
The density is increasing
and that does not bode well for us getting it out
on the limited time that we have left.
We've gotta switch gears.
Moment of truth.
We got lucky on the tusk.
Everything went mostly according to plan.
Golly!
But I think we should just focus on cleaning up the site
and making sure that there'll still be something here to collect when we come back.
Get this plastic stretched out.
So we're just going to bury the site.
Get that back side.
Everything we do is trying to prevent
the worst case scenario,
which is the bones just falling apart,
breaking, disintegrating right before our eyes.
I feel like if we get a good enough layer
of dirt on here, it should be good, you know?
We definitely need to make sure that
we're gonna have really good quality bones
to collect next spring.
That looks good, man.
This is buried pretty deep right here.
I feel good about that.
[narrator] But simply burying the site
won't be enough to protect the bones for multiple months.
[Andre] The creek that exposed this fossil
in the first place is a conduit
for all the water shed off the Mason.
This is the main creek right here.
This is where all the water comes from
and it's flowing straight at our quarry.
This could be fatal.
This could be really fatal for these fossils.
[narrator] A flash flood would wash away
all their attempts to protect the site
and the water would destroy the fossils.
[Andre] I have to change the direction of this creek.
[Clayton] I'm sure glad it warmed back up enough
to melt that snow we got.
Gave us this window to do this.
And it looks like this is our last week.
It shows back in the 20s
that next week, so probably won't climb
back out of that hole.
Shana called me the other day and asked if I'd come out
to their place and look at a couple
triceratops skulls in rough country
and try to figure out a gameplan for getting them out.
This one's on a pinnacle, the other one's in the canyon,
and it is some rough stuff back here.
You guys got some rugged canyons.
[narrator] Clayton's agreed to take on the job
to help his good friend Shana,
whose work getting a law passed
will finally allow him and his partners to try
and sell the multimillion dollar dueling dinosaurs.
[Clayton] I was really excited to come over here and help Shana.
Everybody in paleontology owes her a debt
and I was glad to do my part to come and repay that favor.
[narrator] But to safely extract the quarter million dollar tric skulls for Shana,
Clayton needs to take drastic measures.
Horses and helicopters and...
[Clayton] ...dinosaurs, ranchers?
What could go wrong?
[Shana] These two skulls
are in one of the roughest areas on the ranch.
Both of them are really hard to access
with any kind of equipment.
So Clayton came up with the idea
of bringing a helicopter in to fly them out
and bring his horses in to kind of help us turn them too.
[Clayton] Yeah, crazy sucker, you made it.
[narrator] Shana and her team did some initial plastering.
Now Clayton's here to lend his expertise and reinforced
the larger jacket so it'll survive the airlift.
[Clayton] We're gonna have to work hard to get this done
before that chopper gets here.
We've got just, hopefully, enough time to get this thing capped
and ready to be flipped into the net.
And that's weather permitting, too.
I think the jugal is starting to take shape over here.
- [Shana] Oh, really? - The cheek horns.
You know, it comes round right here. It goes up.
[Shana] Oh, neat.
[Clayton] So we're gonna have to lock that in too.
[narrator] The name triceratops means three horn face
because of the three large horns
at the top of their skull.
But they also have two smaller horn-like projections
on their cheek bones,
which provided additional defense.
[Clayton] Looks good there.
I think this thing is undercut about as far as we dare go.
I think it's about time to mix up a batch, don't you guys?
- [Shana] Start plastering? - I think so.
[man] Oh, that's cold.
[Clayton] I'm definitely concerned about this plaster
curing well enough in a couple of days.
Normally we'd give it a week or two to cure, you know?
Before we ever move one after this,
but we just don't have the luxury of that kind of time.
What do you think? Can we get all the way through that one, Nate?
We've got a short break in the weather
and after this coming week,
looks like it's gonna be down to 20 degrees
and so we're gonna be working as hard as we can
to get that done.
Perfect. Oh, that looks good.
I think all we've got left now is just the bracing.
Just that we can get this thing locked in tight,
to where it's gonna handle that lift out of here in a helicopter.
This bracing is gonna be super important when we go
to roll it and once it's in that net,
it'll keep it from bending or shifting this plaster at all.
When that net comes tight and squeeze around this thing,
it'll stop it from ever being able to move.
It's like, you break your leg, you splint it. That's what we're doing.
Well, the sun's setting on us.
- [Shana] We already burned our daylight. - [Clayton] We did.
It's supposed to freeze tonight,
so we definitely wanna put a canopy over it
and we brought a little heater up there we're gonna stick underneath it.
- You're just gonna stay there tonight? - Oh, yeah.
And I think we're in good shape.
Um, heater seemed to fire up and I think it'll run
long enough and heat that ground up enough,
so it'll keep it from freezing under that tarp,
hopefully all night.
I hope it don't get very cold tonight
because it may mess up our curing deal.
[Mike] Heads up. That's why they call it a skid steer.
Cause it's skidding.
We're getting stormed up.
We're gonna be under snow here pretty soon.
Heard we're supposed to get nearly six, eight inches.
Oh, man.
I think our digging is over for the year.
Looks to me, like...
Shut it down.
[Jake] We're disappointed.
I really loved digging these dinosaurs,
but the winters in Wyoming, they can come hard,
and they can come fast.
You can have a 60 degree temperature drop overnight.
Winters in Wyoming can be absolutely brutal.
[Mike] How about we get these jackets all flipped
and loaded and get them up to the lab?
We'll take these three out with the skid steer
and the rest of these we can flip by hand,
I think, and come back in the spring.
That's all we can do.
We've got weathered out early this year.
Glad we got what we got, though.
Today's the major push to get everything
out of the ground and out of here
before the ground freezes.
Yeah!
Has to come out today, that's it. There's no tomorrow.
Here we go. Got it. Let's go.
[Mike] Good job, guys.
Success.
[Mike] We'll get the skid steer to get after these big jackets.
Whoa!
[Jake] I brought a bunch of more forks just for this.
Basically, we're making a king size spatula.
Here's our jackets, we'll pedestaled underneath.
We're just gonna slice through the ground
and everything will be supported.
[Mike] Perfect.
Whoo, baby!
[Aaron] Watch your toes.
[Jake] Boy, this mud sure ain't making things easy, isn't it?
[narrator] Next, the team flips them over
to keep the fragile bones
from falling out of the open jackets.
[Jake] What are you gonna do with this meatball?
[Mike] Imma lift this up and we'll set it up
on a good pallet.
Works for me.
This is a proud moment and it's also a sad moment.
We all worked hard,
and this is an awesome specimen
that we've dug out of the ground so far.
Oh, jeez.
The sad part is we're sort of at a wall now.
We can't dig anymore.
This is the end of the season. That's it.
Winter's here.
Period.
[Mike] Two to go!
The big honking jacket.
[Mike] The moment of truth.
Looking good.
Nice and easy.
Rocking.
Hey...
Lower.
Dropping [bleep] out of the bottom of it.
We need to get it set down.
[Mike] Hey, can I back up and roll it against this bank
to flip it over?
[Jake] Yeah, back up.
Lower it to the ground.
It's Christmas.
Oh, [bleep].
[Mike] Give me some help!
Get some help down here!
[bleep]
It's Christmas.
Give me some help!
Get some help down here!
[bleep]
Back up.
- Get the mini. - Get the mini, Jake.
[Mike] I see the matrix falling out on the bottom of that jacket
and I about had a heart attack.
All the work we've put into that thing, the pride
and I can see it all unravelling before my very eyes.
It can't go over any further, huh?
[Jake] Keep digging behind.
This is not the way to flip these things.
Once you break it loose from the bottom,
you gotta flip that thing over.
You can't hold it at an angle
where everything's gonna start dumping out.
You just have to go fast and sort of held it
too long and the stuff started falling out.
[growling]
[Mike] Boy, that thing is heavy.
I think we come up pretty lucky, guys.
I don't think we've lost a lot.
Now we can get to the last one anyway, huh?
[Jake] Sure you don't want anybody else running that thing?
- Never should've happened. - [Aaron] Oh, man.
There were broken bones coming out of there.
- [Mike] Yeah. - [Jake] I'd have been hot.
And I don't get mad.
Look out, everybody. Here comes the bobcat.
[Jake] Nice.
Now get out here, Aaron.
Last one! Yup! Yup!
That's good! You're good!
Perfect!
Whoo! All my bones are gone!
They're going to the safe spot, though.
They'll be nice and warm all winter.
The site looks way different.
[Jake] We've put a lot of work in this season.
I mean, we've absolutely needed the ceratopsian
and we spent a lot of money doing it, but if in fact
it is a toro, it's gonna be a unique
and a very valuable find.
If it is a big triceratops, it's still a win-win.
Selling dinosaurs, people want the biggest.
They want the baddest.
Everything about this year has been building up to that.
I think it'll pay off in the end.
Oh! Last jacket.
[Mike] I'm sad to see the season come to an end.
It'd be kind of sad to leave this place.
That whole thing back there, you know,
we're still hitting a lot of bone over here.
[Jake] I could dig for another month, but it's not gonna let me.
[growling]
[Andre] This is my last chance to save the site before I go.
This is the main creek right here.
This is where all the water comes from
and it's flowing straight at our quarry.
I have to change the direction of this creek.
[narrator] In northeast New Mexico,
an early winter storm is expected any day.
Get this plastic stretched out.
[narrator] Andre and his team had to stop digging
and work to protect the fossils.
The last step is to keep this site from flooding.
This low area is, is where I wanna put all the water.
I mean, gravity dictates what water does
and it's gonna look for the lowest area.
So I have to get down to the level of this creek.
So I see an opportunity here at this first bend
in the creek to make a little cut into the low side
and take all of that dirt and build a little dam.
If I can get the water going off
and away from this quarry,
precipitation would be acceptable.
I've got to dig a lot of dirt out of here.
Gotta get that a little deeper.
Oh, I hope this works.
If I can create a little dam upstream
and redirect the flow,
it's gonna keep that creek from blasting
right into this mammoth quarry.
All right!
Almost there, it's looking good.
Looking very good.
We are going head to head with the most powerful force on planet earth,
the force of erosion.
I think this is gonna work!
Using my machine to reshape the land and to make the water
go where I want it to go, it's pretty awesome feeling.
I've got it set up, so the water's gonna do
what water does, it's gonna find the path with least resistance
and it's gonna look for the lowest place.
I've got a pretty good size dam right against here.
As long as it comes along that corner,
hitting this bank right out the channel.
If we did our job right,
then we'll be coming back to a perfect site next spring.
[narrator] With the mammoth site now wrapped for this season,
Robert stops by for one last look.
[Andre] Robert!
I'm really excited to show Robert
what we've got out of the ground.
He's been out here a couple of times
and seen what we're working on,
but, you know, it's a little bit different when you see it on the back of the truck.
This tusk is gonna be absolutely beautiful.
I'm just elated over what you guys did.
Well, I'm glad to hear it.
[Robert] We might sell some of the bones,
and the tusk, make some of our payments.
We still owe quite a bit of money.
It would sure help out.
I'm really proud of you guys for getting this done.
It was an undertaking for sure.
Yeah. That's why nobody ever
for 90 years didn't come back here.
I'm beginning to put that together.
I think this is really gonna be something
for the Abercrombie family to be proud of.
- I'll send you pictures as we get this prepped. - Okay.
[Andre] This is a redemption from what happened 90 years ago.
For their family,
this mammoth site is really special.
It's a very unique legacy.
[man] It's done.
- Yes! - Until next season.
[laughing]
[growling]
[Clayton] Keep going. You don't remember where we're going now, huh?
Today, we're hoping to knock this site out
and be ready to roll it into the net by evening.
Helicopter's coming soon and we gotta get ready for it.
I'm kind of nervous about how our tent held up last night.
[narrator] Clayton's dinosaur cowboy reputation
is on the line.
To help close friend Shana Baisch...
Here he comes.
[narrator] ...pull off an extremely
difficult extraction
of two large tric skulls before the winter freeze.
- Oh, the tarp's still up. - Yeah.
I see some steam in there.
It definitely stayed warm in there, that's what that means.
The heater seemed to fire up and it worked perfect.
[Shana] Looks good to me.
[Clayton] I think we better give this a little time to dry.
Just let the open air
- suck that moisture out of that plaster. - [Shana] Right.
Let's, uh, wander down in the canyon to see
if we can get that other one rolled into the net.
The other skull's down in the bottom of a nasty canyon
that is just barely walkable.
- I'll follow you guys. - [Nate] Don't trip.
[Shana] Yeah.
This is maybe a 1,000, 1,500 lbs. jacket
and how are you gonna move that?
It's just gonna be impossible to get machinery to.
Well, we're gonna lay our cargo net down.
We can roll those big blocks
over with the horses, use a little horsepower
to pull it into the net.
You know, they drop the hook down,
you hook up the net and away they fly.
We just got to kinda get the center as close
as we can to this, so it rolls over fairly well-centered.
When they pick it up, it'll... it'll adjust itself.
Yeah, that looks good.
I'll get my horse and trot around there
and get hooked onto it.
- [Shana] Okay. - Let's roll this thing.
[Clayton] If those jackets flex, the bones inside
turn into coffee grounds and no one can enjoy
a beautiful fossil if it's coffee grounds.
It'll be a hard fall for that dinosaur,
I wanna be as gentle as we can.
Whoa, Soldier. Whoa.
I think that Soldier can pull it over
without damaging the specimen,
but you never know.
Life's a gamble, we're gonna go for it.
- You guys ready? - [Nate] Roll.
All right. Watch out.
- [Clayton] You guys ready? - [Nate] Roll.
All right. Watch out.
Oh!
[Clayton] How does that look?
[Nate] It made a bad noise.
Dang it. Yeah, I'll come back around.
When I heard that thing hit the ground,
I thought I heard him say, "Oh, crap, what was that crack?"
[Shana] It doesn't look like anything cracked on this.
Cool. Success!
[Clayton] Landed where we wanted it.
I think let's just get that other one in the net.
[Shana] Yeah, it's getting late.
[Clayton] Days are getting shorter.
Shadows are getting longer.
Let's set up.
Well.
I'm sure it's not dry, but I think it's fine to flip.
Yeah, I think it looks pretty good.
- It's hard. It's just... - Reasonably set up.
Let's get our straps under it, a couple of them
and just do what we did on the other one, I think.
This is a bigger net.
There we go.
All right, I'll go get my pony.
[Shana] I'm nervous about this one.
It's better at this point if you just don't think
- how much money it's worth. - Oof.
When you're hooked on to something that's kind of valuable,
you're always worried about, you know, breaking it
and, you know, a little bit too far of a pull
and I'll roll it into the canyon and then what are we gonna do?
It's just the risk you take in this business.
[Nate] Ready when you are, Clayton.
All right. On three. One, two...
three.
Oh, it's gonna go! Oh, my God! There it goes!
- Oh, you did it. - [Clayton] It go too far?
[Shana] Even hit the center of it.
Whoa! Good job, guys!
- [Nate] Yes. Nothing but net. - [Clayton] Good deal.
- [Shana] There's no bone left or anything. - Good deal.
I'm glad I didn't roll it off the hill.
[Clayton] Really happy to help you out after...
what you did for paleontology.
This is my way of paying you back.
- Well, I sure appreciate your payback. - Yup.
Just feels good to come over here and help Shana.
She puts so much time and effort into getting
legislation passed to protect everyone in paleontology.
- Well... - It looks good.
I guess we're ready for the helicopter.
- [Shana] Yeah. - [Clayton] That's gonna be a fun day. Yeah.
[Andre] We're just gonna work on the tip here.
Not much longer to go. I mean, we'll just work it down.
Yeah. It's coming along. I think it'll be ready here soon.
[Andre] We got out of northeastern New Mexico
just in time.
They had Robert tells me up to two feet of snow.
It's been crazy, but... since we brought this tusk back to the lab,
we've been really working hard on exposing it,
prepping the matrix off, all the dirt
that it's encased in.
Robert is excited to see this one finished.
He's been blowing up my phone asking me,
"Is it done yet? Is it done yet?"
[Rex] I'm hoping we get a little bit of excitement out of Robert.
[Andre] A "Yupi" would be good.
I'm really hoping it's some kind of redemption for them.
A closing chapter in the story
of the Abercrombie mammoths.
I'm gonna cut the jacket back a little bit,
I'm starting to get blocked out here.
I need to cut this plaster jacket back just enough
to expose some more matrix that I can work down.
We've just been repeating that process
all the way down since this thing
was completely incased in plaster.
[Rex] There we go.
[Andre] It's a really delicate piece.
It's been pretty by the book so far.
The tip is exposed.
It's pretty pretty.
This is what we're always looking out for,
a very thin layer of the dry ivory started to crumble.
So you have to get glue on it right away
'cause it will continue to exfoliate and expand.
Stop the bleeding.
[Rex] Nice.
[Andre] This is starting to clean up super nice.
We've got it prepared all the way down to the tip.
I think we are ready to put that bedding jacket on it.
I'm pouring the resin that we're gonna to be using
to make this bedding jacket.
That's gonna allow us to flip it over and start
our final detail preparation on the other side.
We are deciding to use fiber glass
instead of a plaster jacket.
Very lightweight material, boats and cars
are made out of it. So it's very strong.
The fibers will interlock in the resin
and create strength
throughout the bedding jacket.
It's the same principle as the plaster and burlap.
Perfect.
Okay, you ready?
[Rex] Let's get some drizzling going.
You guys follow me. All right? There you go.
So we're pouring this resin all over this cloth
to create a shell to support this while we flip
the tusk over to begin final preparation on the other side.
I'm finger painting. I'm finger painting now.
This is definitely not standard procedure
because this material is expensive.
Plaster is your economy material,
but it's extremely heavy.
And we're just done.
We're done with plaster on this thing.
[Rex] I think it's good.
[Andre] Yeah, we'll plug a fan in to circulate some air
and let this thing set up.
What's next for us is to get here in the morning
and we'll flip the jacket over
do the final preparation on the other side
and it'll be ready to reveal this thing to the Abercrombies.
This is like Christmas night as a parent,
when you're staying up late and you're cutting
all the wrapping paper and you're putting the bows on.
I mean, that's where we are with his project,
and we can't wait to give the Abercrombies
this present tomorrow.
Oh, no. Oh...
This is great.
Wait, you've got a hand free. Can you help me?
[Mike] Started snowing and pretty well ended the digging season.
We don't like it but that's the way it goes.
And so now... I'm heading to Brock's to see
what the Cowboy Rex skull looks like.
We decided to take a gamble,
put some money into Cowboy Rex
to prep him out, to build a head that people can look at.
And now we've got it done.
I'm going to meet Cowboy face to face.
Truly face to face for the first time.
[narrator] One of the most complete T-rex skeletons
ever discovered, in 2011 the Harris' excavated
a 153 out of a possible 300 bones found in a T-rex.
Welcome to Wyoming. Mike Harris.
[narrator] Over the years, multiple sales have fallen through
because the buyers couldn't quite visualize
what Cowboy Rex would look like out of the jackets.
If you think it's cool now, just wait till it's spread, and it can walk.
Never gets old.
This is gonna be a gorgeous piece, that skull cap.
[narrator] So, Mike decided to take a different approach
and prep out the T-rex's skull.
[Mike] We've put a lot of money into the prep job
on this skull, but this Is really gonna increase
our odds of making a good sale on the Cowboy.
I'm a gambling man and I'm absolutely feeling
100% certain that this has been a great gamble.
It's been a long road, it's been nearly ten years
since we started this journey with Cowboy Rex
and I... I just... I just cannot wait.
This is just gonna be one of the most incredible moments of my life.
[narrator] In Utah, Brock Sisson and his team
have been working for five months,
prepping each skull piece
and assembling Cowboy Rex's head.
The T-rex jaw alone was almost four feet long,
and contained around 60 razor sharp teeth
that can be as long as nine inches each.
- Hey. - Oh, hey, Mike.
- [Mike] Anybody home? - Come on in. How you doing?
Good. Looks like you got the wheels of industry in motion.
Yeah, we got all the crew here working.
- I'm excited, man. Yeah? - I hope you're happy with it.
We've put a lot of work into it.
- [Mike] I wanna see Cowboy. - Let's go check him out, then.
All right.
[Mike] It's gonna be show time.
Big show time.
- Oh... - Oh, hang on.
You know what? Why don't you guys come check this out?
Mike, these are the guys that did the work. I just run this show.
I just can't believe that this moment is happening, guys.
- This is great. - You ready?
- Oh, let's go! - [Brock] You sure?
Let's go! Let's go!
Here we go.
Oh, my gosh!
I just can't believe that this moment is happening, guys.
- This is great. - You ready?
- Oh. Let's go! - You sure?
- Let's go! Let's go! - Here we go.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my gosh, Brock.
This is the most incredible thing I've ever seen.
Wow.
Cowboy Rex is huge!
Oof.
This skull just blew me away,
way more than I would've ever expected.
Wow. I tell you what, man. My heart's racing.
I've seen him laying flat in 100 pieces
and... oh, my gosh. What a difference.
You guys are good.
[Brock chuckling]
You guys are good.
This skull is fabulous. It is absolutely fabulous.
Brock and his crew have done just an amazing,
an amazing job on this.
I was imagining something about 2/3 of that size.
Yeah, it's pretty big skull. About 50 inches.
That is gonna be a whale of a skeleton, isn't it?
Boy, look at the teeth.
[Brock] Yeah, look at the size of them teeth.
[Mike] Are these all real teeth?
[Brock] There's a few replicas in there. But most of them are real.
I don't know if I wanna sell it.
I might want to keep it in my living room.
I have to build a bigger house.
[roaring]
Thank you. Thank you all so much.
To see this happening is just...
It's just incredible, Brock.
- Good job, man. Good job. - [Brock] I'm glad you're happy.
Just... You know, cowboys don't cry,
but come pretty close. Wow, it's a... something else.
It's been a lot time in the making.
He's been laying around for nine years
to get to where this skull is at on the Cowboy.
This is kind of like an ending to all of the good times,
the happy times we've had.
The exciting times when somebody would let out a yell,
"Look at this tooth!"
I've been very blessed to be part of this.
This is something that happens to just
a few people on earth, and it's been the trip of a lifetime.
Good job, brother. Good job.
Thanks for giving us the opportunity, Mike.
Good job. Well, I guess the next thing is
see if we can find a buyer,
but, boy, we have a product to show them now.
With the skull prepared, we really have a much better visual
of what this animal is.
Most people can't just look into a field jacket and see,
"Oh, yeah, that's gonna be a nice dinosaur."
But now you know what you're getting.
It's gonna be a whole lot easier for somebody to buy it.
What's a cowboy without his hat, mate?
[laughing]
There you go.
Hey, Cowboy Rex!
Yeehaw!
Man, let's get this thing sold.
Hey, Billie! Good to see you!
Today's a big day. Robert and Billie are here.
- How are you doing, man? - Good.
Good to see you.
I'm really looking forward to show them this amazing tusk.
- You guys ready to see it? - Yes.
-We are so excited. Can't wait. -Come on.
We are really excited.
I really want this to be perfect for them.
Hopefully, really blow their socks off.
We've been waiting for 90 years to see it, so...
- You ready? - I'm ready.
- You ready to see it? - [Billie] Ready.
[gasps]
- Oh my gosh. - Wow.
[Billie] They are beautiful.
Can't believe how pretty they tuned out.
[Andre] I was hoping that was the reaction you'd have.
They're just gorgeous. Not too shabby.
I never expected them to look this good.
[Robert] Dream come true right here.
What was this big one weigh, I wonder?
[Andre] I would say 100 or less.
- [Billie] Can we touch it? - Yes, please.
- Look out! - Ah!
[laughing]
That's just amazing. Wow.
- Don't drop it okay? - Isn't it beautiful?
[Billie] They're just gorgeous.
[Andre] This has absolutely been worth it.
All the hard work, all the miles, all the long hours.
Wow.
It's not just an object, it's not just a fossil.
It's the legacy.
Your grandpa would be proud.
He would be so happy.
I guess he's looking down at us and just smiling.
[Robert] We've been waiting for 90 something years.
Somebody finally did it.
90 years ago, my grandpa ran across these tusks.
He would be so excited to see that they got out of the ground
and are in our possession now.
[Andre] The history is amazing,
so this has been a special project for us.
We're closing a chapter in the story,
and Robert finally gets to see the results
of this 90 year project.
His grandfather started it and he gets to be the Abercrombie
that finishes it, and that's gotta be a great feeling.
Hopefully, redemption for the Abercrombies.
Few families have a story like this
and it's really a privilege to be a part of it.
We just can't wait to get you guys back out there
digging on them other ones.
We can't wait to get back.
This is just the first step on a long journey.
There's a lot of bones left in the ground
on the Abercrombie ranch.
So we've got a lot of work ahead of us.
- Thank you. - Thank you, Robert.
Thank you so much for coming.
Really appreciate it.
This next season, we're gonna be back out there excavating.
We left the big scapula on the ground,
so we've got a lot of work to do.
[Jake] I've been anxious to prep this jaw
ever since I found it
because this is the coolest piece.
[Mike] This is a show piece deluxe.
[Jake] But I hate to stop digging.
As the season comes to a close here, we got shut out by snow.
You can't control winter.
You can't control when winter hits, so...
now we moved all the jackets of the ceratopsian
back to the lab and we're gonna start prepping them.
This jaw is looking way better than I thought it was gonna.
We've put a lot of work in this season.
Bringing in my ten-man crew.
Dead one doubled down, we doubled down.
We had to hire some extra help.
You know what it is?
Happened to get lucky.
That is a jaw!
Whoo!
[narrator] This winter, the guys hoped to determine
whether they've uncovered a tric or a toro.
[Jake] Everything about this animal was proportionate
until we found the femur.
The length of this femur doesn't make sense.
No. Why is it so short?
[Jake] The femur didn't match the animal.
So it's not black and white, it's still up in the air.
But the bone quality's there and the bone count is there
and there's still a possibility
that is a torosaurus.
[Aaron] Right now we're still on the evidence collecting phase
to get the answers that we're looking for
we're gonna have to start cleaning all the jackets out in the prep process.
And once that's done,
then you can make a judgement on what exactly this is.
Torosaurus, triceratops, whatever.
[Jake] These teeth are looking amazing.
We absolutely needed this ceratopsian
for potential funding.
We threw a lot of money at Cowboy Rex
to get him prepped to show his true value.
I think it'll pay off in the end.
[narrator] Now back from Utah.
Mike just received an update
from their dinosaur broker
that could change everything.
Just got a call from Brock. He's excited. He has pretty exciting news.
Hey, guys. We've got some good news from Brock.
Tell them what you just told me.
[Brock] So I just got off the phone with my client.
I had him over here and he checked the rex out.
He really liked it and said he's interested.
So I think we might have it sold.
[laughing]
Whoo!
[Jake] Brock has a potential buyer for Cowboy Rex.
Excellent news. Awesome news.
It's something that we've been waiting to hear for literally years.
This is the real deal.
[Brock] We still got to get a contract in place
and money side of stuff figured out,
but I really think this is gonna happen.
He's gonna buy the rex.
Sounds like he's ready to start working on a contract.
This is the closest that we have been yet.
You don't have the money until it's in the bank.
But it sure looks like we're going the right direction.
Well, we've been through it before,
but this is the moment.
[Brock] This time, they've actually seen what they're gonna get.
So it looks like maybe our investment started to work.
[Brock] I think it was a good idea to get that skull done. It made all the difference.
[Mike] Yup. Yup. Yup.
You know, we took more of a gamble than we ever have.
Now people can see this is Cowboy Rex.
This is the real deal.
When you double down that far, you need results.
I am beyond ecstatic for dad
because I know how hard he's worked his whole life.
A lot of ups and downs.
It's not gonna cure everything,
but it's gonna make life a whole lot easier.
So the next step...
[Brock] So I've gotta get contracts in place,
get things signed.
That's your problem. I've got enough problems out here.
- Whoo! Good work, Brock! - Good work, Brock.
You have a great day and we'll be talking soon.
- [Brock] Yeah, talk to you soon. - All right. Bye.
Whoo! Man!
All right. I think I can quit holding my breath now.
A little bit of relief.
- Yeah, a little bit of relief. - A lot of relief.
The money's nice.
Uh, you know, when you have bills
that have to be paid, but this entire journey
has really not been about the money but yet it is.
There's no way of getting around that,
but for the most part, it has just been about the experience.
It's something that we'll take with us for all of our lives.
- I feel pretty good about this one. - [Mike] Yeah, I do.
Just cause they can see 3D stuff.
We gambled and it's sounds like what we've done is right.
A long time coming.
[Aaron] I'm extremely happy for Mike.
You know, I look at what Mike has done
and how far he's come in his life.
You know, here's a guy that started out
humble beginnings and now he's out here,
he's got his ranch, he's got a T-rex sold.
You know, a lot of hard work went into that.
That's not just something that happens overnight.
He deserved this enormously big break.
This was an awesome year
and I'm actually stoked for next year.
I can't wait to get out there and look for new sites.
It's gonna be awesome.
[Jake] You know, we set our goals awful high this year.
Took more of a gamble than we ever have,
we set out to sell Cowboy Rex, we got that done.
We set out to find a whole specimen, we got that done.
Gamble paid off, to get to do that every day
and to get to dig beside my best friends and my dad,
I mean, I had a hell of a season.
Life doesn't get much better.
You know what that means, we have to go find another one.
Whoo!
[growling]
[Clayton] We're going on an adventure.
I'm excited about the chopper coming to lift them up.
Well, I can't believe that it's gonna happen. It's gonna be intense.
[narrator] The guys are headed out to help Shana.
Clayton's close friend and fellow dino hunter
pulled two tric skulls out to the lab from a remote area.
This'll be the first time I've ever hooked a dinosaur
up to a helicopter and been the leader on that expedition.
So I'm looking forward to it and excited about it
and maybe a little bit apprehensive.
Hello.
- Well, today's the big day. - [Shana] Yeah.
- The triceratops skulls fly. - Yeah.
I think that chopper's gonna stage up down here
and get unloaded and Nate and I will get up there and get ready.
- Let us know when he's coming. - Yeah, you won't be able to see him from down that
that bottom of that canyon I don't think so.
No. Not till it comes over the ridge.
[Shana] I'll be really excited to see these skulls
get down to here to flat ground.
We'll bring them down to the ranch
and hopefully, we'll find a buyer for them.
[Clayton] We're go on this end, ready when you guys are.
[Shana] Roger.
Well, it should be here shortly, I would think.
Shana, is it on its way?
[Shana] Yeah, it just left.
It's on its way. Good luck.
Thanks, we might need it.
Let's do this. Yeah, here it comes.
Get the net.
That little hook got a little weight to it.
You better have a good chopper pilot,
or it'll decapitate you or knock you off this ridge.
Here it comes, here it comes.
No, no, no. Over this thing. Over this thing.
No! Over this!
Ah, [bleep].
[Jake] Okay, lesson in teeth.
These triceratops teeth right here, one might think a tooth
is a tooth is a tooth, but there's subtle differences.
I can tell from this big ridge
that this is from the lower jaw.
This would be a bottom left.
This tooth has a smaller ridge,
so this would be an upper left.
Triceratops, he would pick and pluck ferns and the cycads,
and as he was chewing them up,
his teeth were constantly in a shearing action.
Every bite that this animal took...
nom, nom, chomp, chomp, chomp.
It was just wears on them, and wears on them
and pretty soon, he'd bust a tooth off. That's okay.
They have hundreds of teeth in their mouth.
They had three to five rows, just like a shark.
Break one tooth off, the next one's ready to go.
You had thousands of triceratops
just roaming the land.
They were each losing thousands and thousands of teeth
during their life time,
so our ranch is just littered with spitter teeth.
So to find a triceratops jaw with the teeth still in it,
I mean, that's something special.
[Clayton] Here it comes. Here it comes.
No, no. Over this thing. Over this thing!
No, over this.
Ah, [bleep].
When you're under one of them choppers, it feels like you're in a hurricane.
Dust is flying, and things are spinning around.
Here we go. There you go.
It's extremely nerve wracking,
but you just cowboy up and get it done.
Good job. Well done.
Let's get up the hill. He'll be back before we get there.
[grunting]
He picked that up and got some speed on him.
- It's swinging. - [Shana] Yes, he did.
[man] Oh, be gentle, bud.
[Shana] She's gonna land, yes.
Yeah, whoo!
Smooth operator on that chopper for sure.
Well done on his end.
Yeah, that was quick and excellent.
That's a huge relief to have it down here safely.
This was the one that was really tough,
it was in a terrible spot.
It is amazing to have it set down here
where we can reach it with equipment.
Here it goes for the second one.
He's coming back. Round two!
- Ready, Nate? - Yeah.
[Clayton] Yup, perfect.
[Nate] That guy is good.
[Clayton] That was so smooth.
- Well done! - [Nate] Oh, my God.
[Clayton] Flying dinosaurs.
- Our jacket's held up so far. - [Shana] This is awesome.
[man] Culmination of months of labor made simplified.
[Shana] Yes.
Here she comes.
See how he did.
The second one was set down a little harder.
A little bit harder.
Looks like it held up.
[Shana] Yes, it did.
[Clayton] They made it down good.
See them sitting on the ground down here.
[Shana] Yeah. Looking good, aren't they?
[Nate] Yeah.
Look a lot better than they did up in that canyon
and on top of that ridge way up there.
What do you think about getting them loaded here?
I think we just run a chain under our straps
and pick that thing straight up and Shana backs under it.
Let's try that. I'll back up, you guys wanna pull the nets.
It went excellent today.
Just amazed.
I've been thinking about this for a year,
trying to figure out how to get them out of there
and today, it happened.
You couldn't have asked for a better ride.
[Clayton] You know, it feels pretty good to have
these dinosaurs out here for Shana
because everybody involved in paleontology in any way, owes Shana a big thank you.
[Nate] That's good.
And I feel good that I was able to do my part and pay that back.
- You're done. - Thank you...
- No, thank you. - Thank you so much.
That went really well.
So this is a wrap on our season
and, man, what a way to end it.
We're fully out.
[Nate] I'm super happy that we were able
to finish this season out with that.
Something over here.
I just love being out there looking for dinosaurs.
Oh, man.
That's a triceratops skull, folks.
This is what fossil hunters fossil hunt for.
Oh, my gosh. Yes!
I love that Luke and I have the same passion
and we like to go out and find dinosaurs
and it's fun to share that with him.
[Luke] Oh, my gosh. That's awesome.
[Clayton] And as long as I can keep doing that
and stay healthy, I'm gonna keep doing it.
I'm really excited to get back out here next spring.
[Nate] We'll do it again, we'll find some more.
[Shana] Yeah, we'll work on that next spring.
[growling]