In Central Wyoming, a group of scientists is finding and studying evidence of a past climate change event known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM. The PETM is a critically important climate-change event because, although it occurred over 56 million years ago, it's the best analogy we have for understanding the long-term implications of today's global climate change. Scientific data collected from many sources—greenhouse gas emissions, temperature records, and ice cores, among others—confirm that the rapid warming of our planet today is being caused by human activities.

Paleontology as a field of science studies worlds and ecosystems of the past, but that doesn't mean there aren't any present-day applications for this work. Through paleontology, student will begin to understand how the implications of our actions today can shape our future, whether that's the decision to protect fossils as valuable, nonrenewable resources or by looking at how ancient ecosystems change over long periods of time, to get an idea of where we might be heading. For more information, visit the Prehistoric Road Trip website.