6-year-old finds ancient fossil at park near Gretna

SARPY COUNTY, Neb. (KLKN) — The Nebraska Game and Parks revealed Leo Youngdahl, 6, of Eagle, found a rare fossil at Schramm Park State Recreation Area.

Youngdahl found it during the Rafting and Rocks event. When he found it, he said he had hoped to find his favorite fossil, a crinoid.

Instead, Youngdahl found an even more rare and ancient fossil: a conulariid.

A conulariid is an ancient marine animal that lived in eastern Nebraska 200 million to 500 million years ago, according to Nebraska Game and Parks.

The Schramm Education Center outdoor education specialist, Kelly Ekue, said the fossil that was found was evidently rare immediately.

“I’ve been leading programs at the outcrop for over seven years, and there are six main types of fossils we find,” Ekue said. “This fossil didn’t look anything like any of the species we see. It was larger and seemed fish-like, which was ‘fishy’ because we only have invertebrate fossils in the age of rock we have and vertebrates weren’t here during that period of time.”