Meet Phossil Phil

We at the Dino Trails were pleased to hear from Phil Young, aka ‘Phossil Phil’ or ‘The Phossilator’, from Tennessee. Phil is a grade three teacher and a real fossil and dino enthusiast. He and his wife also have a small farm close to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park where Phil has created a fossil museum he calls The Museum of Deep Time, which houses fossils he has uncovered across the southeast US.

He hosts fossil/dino camps on the property where each camper receives some pretty cool take-aways, including a six-foot T. rex!

Phil has one particular student who is a true dino expert and Phil shares a funny story. His student pointed out that while the name Brontosaurus is commonly used, it’s actually called an Apatasaurus.

“Apparently, the two specimens were found in different places by different palaeontologists and given separate names,” says Phil. Years later, scientists realized they were the same species, so the rule is the oldest specimen discovery gets priority, hence Apatasaurus wins. “For some reason though, the name Brontosaurus is in the psyche of most people, being the number two most well known name behind T. rex,” Phil adds.

Thanks Phil for sharing the story and please do stay in contact, we think there’ll be more dino tales coming out of Tennessee worth passing along to our readers!