Big Bone Lick

Travel back 450 million years with the park naturalist staff for an exciting day of fossil hunting at Big Bone Lick State Park on Saturday, May 2.  Help find, photograph, clean and catalogue the various Ordovician fossils found on the park.  Any extraordinary fossils that are found will be put on display in the nature and history center.

The Ordovician is a geologic period, the second of six periods in the Paleozoic era, and covers the time between 488-443 million years ago.  It follows the Cambrian period and precedes the Silurian period.  The Ordovician, named after the Welsh tribe of the Ordovices, was defined by Charles Lapworth in 1879.

Metazoan invertebrates dominated Ordovician life.  Marine life increased four-fold during this period.  Corals collected to build reefs.  Green algae — from which plants probably evolved — became common.  The first terrestrial plants resembling liverworts appeared.  The first jawed fish appeared late in the Ordovician.  A mass marine life extinction occurred during the late Ordovician and claimed some 60% of genera, thereby creating niches for benthic (bottom-dwelling) and planktonic (floating, swimming) organisms.

Todd Young is the naturalist at Big Bone Lick State Park in Boone County, Kentucky.

A naturalist is a person who studies natural history: animals and plants and how they evolve.  Note that this job is not to be confused with a naturist, which is someone who enjoys life “clothing optional.”

Todd graduated from Northern Kentucky University with degrees in both Anthropology and Philosophy.  He started at Big Bone Lick in the spring of 2002 as a seasonal naturalist and recreation specialist.  In November 2006, Todd became the full-time naturalist for the park.

Todd and the naturalist staff at Big Bone Lick State Park offer high quality educational and community outreach programs that are tailored specifically to each individual group.  If you are lucky to run into Todd while visiting the park, you’ll find him to be very approachable, knowledgeable, and an all-around nice guy.

You can phone Todd at 859-384-3522 or send email to todd.young@ky.gov