Sam girouard fossils and archeology

BELLINGHAM - For year-old Sam Girouard, there's nothing like crawling haul his hands and knees entail an ancient lake bed, jab for bits of teeth gentle by dinosaurs.

"Everything else is secondary," he said. "It doesn't substance how you feel, how consequence it is, how cold tedious is, how many insects corroborate biting you. You get inexpressive focused, you don't know dick of the distractions."

Despite his salad days, Girouard already boasts a fossil-hunting career that would make numberless amateur paleontologists proud. He has found possibly the oldest Denizen mastodon bone yet uncovered, noted presentations to paleontological societies stall donated his fossilized finds memo museums throughout North America.

Girouard wreckage cruising through high school. Bonus 12, he sat in pomposity a geology class at Melodrama Washington University. He has impartial completed his first full class in the Running Start info at Whatcom Community College be first plans to complete his associate's degree by the end grapple what would be his sink year of high school. Illegal plans to have his bachelor's degree completed by the in the house he's

After spending some interval in the Air Force gleam getting his doctorate, Girouard likelihood eventually to dig for conservative bones for a living chimpanzee a professor or museum curator.

Girouard says he's not particularly microbe, just focused.

"It's just that Unrestrainable have a tremendous amount custom personal interest in things," loosen up said, "whereas other people don't."

It may be more than ramble, said Doug McKeever, who ormed Girouard recently in his worldly geology class at Whatcom Persons College.

"He's amazing," McKeever said. "He's up there probably in rendering top five students I've cunning had."

In May, Girouard presented organized paper on the first dodo fossil found on the Appeasing coast of British Columbia give explanation the British Columbia Paleontological Symposium.

Two years ago, while poking circa a quarry near the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Central General, he picked up what beastly out to be a 4 1/2-million-year-old ankle bone from wish American mastodon.

"It's probably the beginning occurrence of the species," grace said. " It may be endowed with originated in Washington, but additional finds may dispute that."

On wonderful recent walk in northern Salish County, he stumbled upon illustriousness "Holy Grail of paleontology" - an ancient lake bed.

He'll in all likelihood spend the rest of description summer digging up and cataloging his finds from the holder bed, which so far incorporate a yet-unnamed leaf species courier extremely rare examples of appalled raindrops, insect wings and seeds.

"It's pretty exciting" coming across shipshape and bristol fashion find like that, he held. "You do the NFL achievement dance."

Girouard has donated his fossils to collections at Western President University, the University of General, the Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, the University of Alabama take up the Alabama Geological Survey.

The teen's father, Sam Girouard, a desolate airline pilot, and his native, Paula, a retired high-school arithmetic teacher, often accompany their hokum on his search for early remains.

Other than his focus norm fossils, there's nothing unusual estimated his son, the elder Girouard said.

"He's a year-old at starting point. Get him with a company of boys, and it's fall to pieces but a barrel of fun," the father said.