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Why the Appalachians Contain Some of the Oldest Fossils on Earth

Written By SciShow on Wednesday, Jun 04, 2025 | 01:00 PM

 
The Appalachian Mountains are some of the oldest geological features on earth. And they also hold fossils that tell us about some of the very earliest life forms that we'll ever manage to see in the fossil record. So how did these mountains manage to hang on to these precious fossils? The story lies in a billion-year long game of bumper cars, and in these plain-looking little rocks. Check out the SciShow Rocks Box https://complexly.store/rocks Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him) ---------- Support us for $8/month on Patreon and keep SciShow going! https://www.patreon.com/scishow Or support us directly: https://complexly.com/support Join our SciShow email list to get the latest news and highlights: https://mailchi.mp/scishow/email ---------- Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever: J.V. Rosenbalm, Bethany Matthews, Toyas Dhake, David Johnston, Lyndsay Brown, Alan Wong, Jeffrey Mckishen, Kaitlyn O'Callaghan, Reed Spilmann, Garrett Galloway, Friso, kickinwasabi, Gizmo, Jeremy Mattern, Blood Doctor Kelly, Eric Jensen, Jaap Westera, Matt Curls, Jp Lynch, Wesus, Chris Curry, Cye Stoner, Kevin Knupp, Piya Shedden, Adam Brainard, Alex Hackman, Jason A Saslow, Kevin Bealer, Joseph Ruf, Chris Peters, Chris Mackey, Steve Gums ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? SciShow Tangents Podcast: https://scishow-tangents.simplecast.com/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scishow Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/scishow.bsky.social #SciShow #science #education #learning #complexly ---------- Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vT_jcZkPwgf1_AmzdVOS3MwIpxjfasGMaeOOF9jpS7eiIbp9aqoeBugriKKNlkmMZok1bsbvk6tIH0_/pub