What Fossils Reveal about Today's Climate Change

Dr. Scott Wing spent a decade combing the hills in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming to find fossil evidence of an extinction event that occurred in the Southern Ocean of Antarctica, 56 million years ago. Here, we talk with him and Dr. Kirk Johnson about how studying the fossil record helps us better understand current impacts of human-caused climate change on our planet, and what it means for our future world.

More Brain Scoop from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History: 

--- The Wonderful World of Worms

--- Inside the Whale Warehouse!

"Smithsonian's New Fossil Hall to Open June 8, 2019"

"Ancient Earth warmed dramatically after a one-two carbon punch," Smithsonian Magazine. 

"Wyoming paleontology dispatch #1: Why 56 million years ago?" Smithsonian Magazine. 

"This ancient climate catastrophe is our best clue about Earth's future," Washington Post.

This video is brought to you through a collaboration with the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., and the Field Museum, in Chicago, IL.