ANNOUNCER: to enrich the diverse throughout our state, the generous support Thank you.

NARRATOR: Coming up, a much MIKE: It's going to be a NARRATOR: The quest to and exposing Maryland's Next.

ANNOUNCER: Outdoors Maryland with the Maryland Department DNR: inspired by nature, [waves crashing] Closed Captioning has been made empowering those who are deaf, or speech disabled * * NARRATOR: Few things in nature more perfectly than the Emerging like clockwork from they appear by the millions, singing their summer song at [cicada sounds] and sometimes digging up with the bugs themselves.

MIKE RAUPP: They take me back to one year onto the playground, there were these big bugs NARRATOR: It's April, 2021, in Woodstock, unless you know where to look.

MIKE: Let's see if anybody's Oh...yeah, this is really good.

We've got holes.

NARRATOR: Today, entomologist for the early signs of a group MIKE: The early cicada that in distinct geographic there were massive synchronous cicadas.

NARRATOR: These are called MIKE: We have 15 broods so almost every year in some there is a brood of cicadas NARRATOR: Out of all the broods, distributions and highest and Maryland is at its But for now, the immature nymph underground.

MIKE: Yeah, here they are.

Yep.

They're just about ready to go.

NARRATOR: Meaning that within MIKE: It's going to be a They're going to have music.

They're going to have romance.

It's what they do in their Periodical cicadas belong magical cicadas.

Part of this magic is figuring of 17 years.

NARRATOR: One theory holds that of tree roots provides not only but information about the But whatever their secret, of these magical bugs has ranging from fearful, to curious, to downright celebratory.

JP: Oh my God, how fabulous.

NARRATOR: Baltimore based of the Formstone Castle has been eagerly preparing for for months, by readying a public the beauty of the bugs.

MICHAEL BOWMAN: Welcome to the early museum of Cicada art.

We're casting over 400 plaster so that we can have them and then hung around the state.

This one was made by my mom.

We've got one here that's and a really traditional tea cup with gold leaf legs And we've got about 145 more in the next few weeks.

NARRATOR: The project, centers around the cicada of transformative change MICHAEL: Some of it goes back in Maryland.

I think, I might have been from the first emergence.

And because of that, I was like, bugs, but I'm just too little.

And by the time they come I'm going to be a grownup and won't even care about bugs."

But it's only gotten more and I think more meaningful.

I think, it really gives on the change in your own life, of this.

NARRATOR: Come May, across the state set into a mass exodus underfoot.

Millions upon millions of crawl out their subterranean their steady march up.

MIKE: They're going to find Once they climb up, their skin A soft shell cicada will emerge.

By dawn, it will have changed to that jet black color, those the orange wings, and they'll to the tree tops.

NARRATOR: And as they do, more colorful counterparts.

MICHAEL: We are in the in beautiful Baltimore, and we are taking advantage of that are around here to put up This one is number 105.

This project was sort of of the pandemic, something that when we, emerged from that long period that we could have of our art pieces.

And we've been putting them up happened, and we're continuing crawl out of the ground.

We like Cylburn, it's one of and we knew that it would be They're just almost deafening There's that many.

[laughs] NARRATOR: West of the city, is another cicada hotspot, And he isn't the only one - The nature preschool at the is brand new.

What we do at nature preschool and what they're interested in that they're learning.

Them being able to touch let them crawl on their arms, to be afraid of things is what's going to help us environmental stewards.

CHILD: Stay still, Miss Becky.

NARRATOR: Not to mention... - The kids can stand at a base life cycle happening NARRATOR: And what a weird MIKE: Periodical cicadas strategies for survival of We call it predator satiation.

NARRATOR: Meaning they emerge that even after local predators there are still plenty of the species and to dominate MIKE: It's only the male cicada He creates the sound with an And when he joins the chorus of they'll actually reach the sound of a jet aircraft or a lawn mower engine nearby.

NARRATOR: Among other things, as a serenade to attract MIKE: If he succeeds, they're After they mate, of small branches to lay She uses her egg laying "the ovipositor" She'll then deposit 20-30 eggs NARRATOR: Up to 600 And within 6-8 weeks, the tiny nymphs will fall burrow into the earth and all over again.

MIKE: It's a circle of life.

For 17 years, In the 17th year, on the planet that wants to eat And finally, in their last act, to the very trees from NARRATOR: But these mysterious a source of nutrients.

They're also a source of a living time capsule that for just a few short weeks, to reflect back on in another MIKE: You know; You know; they're a sign of being able to hang in there They're kind of cool.

* NARRATOR: Glittering in the warm the lower Patuxent River But underwater, Schools of fish that don't on the habitat.

The Maryland Department of is working on the problem.

Today, DNR biologists, are setting out to tag, track, and manage the invasive MARY GROVES: Blue catfish are a fairly recent invasive species And in this case, for them to start showing up TIM GROVES: They took off and really you know, and now...we're finding them in Maryland up the NARRATOR: The Groves have been explosion for more than but the tagging program is new, a way to gather more details about these voracious predators.

MARY: The blue catfish They can grow over They'll eat just about any And because they do grow and because they are and because they've spread to these fish have the ability in a negative way, that are in the water.

NARRATOR: They were introduced in Virginia in the '80s but their tolerance for salinity and they soon spread to and other tributaries, MARY: Our goal today is six blue catfish that are and typically something like to come up on, any bit of wood that's hanging down, for fish to stick around, You can go ahead and If you have a fish species that on whatever's in the water, more concerned and need to where that fish is going, what it's eating, NARRATOR: Through data collected Mary and Tim hope to learn how far they travel, Ultimately, the blue cat's impact, help fishermen hook this TIM: This is this part of This part goes in the water generator through the wires, NARRATOR: This is no ordinary This is a specially outfitted that has a shocking special TIM: There's one.

Just stuns them temporary.

MARY: They're very, TIM: See the fish come up?

Mary, there's a big fish NARRATOR: The electric current to stun the fish, TIM: Then, MARY: That looks like TIM: There's a catfish, Goldfish is white perch.

This is a channel catfish.

This is not a native fish but it's been here since but they don't get near as large And they've been accepted as in Maryland.

The way you can tell is if you it's a rounded.

Here's the blue cat.

You can see the anal fin here, there's more fin raise to it.

You can see he doesn't have The eyes are a bit more set Mouth's a little larger.

And the tail is not MARY: I think, TIM: Okay.

NARRATOR: Back on land, the blue MARY: Each will get that will track their movements on their every move.

MARY: This is a combination That way, then they can work of the Patuxent, into higher salinity waters.

NARRATOR: Each fish is assigned researchers to track them MARY: Okie Doke.

He's good to go.

A quick suture and they're TIM: After the fish recover we take them and release them Let them swim back to the river, We track them and we try MARY: There you go.

TIM: I think, we got one here, Ross.

ROSS: That one's the 160... NARRATOR: Early data show blue often traveling more than TIM: We've found some areas that because they stay there a lot.

NARRATOR: Information that the blue catfish's only catch and eat this delectable MARY: Just down river, a catfish tournament, where Maryland are doing their part MARY: Blue catfish is and the more people eat it, and then watermen will go out It's healthy to eat, you know.

It's safe to eat and it Then hopefully, and that will knock the 26.28.

The only way that we can really is to have people want to take We've seen in the past where can really make a big and cooperation with like information that people put in, NARRATOR: The only catch: * [waves crashing] NARRATOR: It's a blustery of the Chesapeake, curator of paleontology at leads a small group of a piece of Maryland's DR. GODFREY: How much of the when you first saw it?

VOLUNTEER: It was that full DR. GODFREY: What?

VOLUNTEER: Oh, yeah...

The tip of this.

And then, there's bones down the cliff heading north.

DR. GODFREY: Okay.

So let's go off and VOLUNTEER: Yeah.

NARRATOR: They hope to fossilized whale skull.

DR. GODFREY: Okay.

NARRATOR: From the striking Calvert Cliffs.

It spent roughly -- in the Mycenaean Epoch layer and it appears Mother Nature longer still.

DR. GODFREY: So, So, we're going to have to scrub VOLUNTEER: The beach looks than last time I was here.

[laughter] There was a little more beach.

DR. GODFREY: Yeah, Yeah.

No, this is certainly deeper VOLUNTEER: Yeah.

We may need to wait until DR. GODFREY: AAAH!

NARRATOR: Finding and a race against time and tide, of the cliff face, but when another specimen GEORGE OLIVER: Let's see NARRATOR: But George Oliver seem to have timed the GEORGE: Wow, NARRATOR: They've combed this near their home for years.

GEORGE: So from the time we would come down here and looking for teeth.

And she could find some of that you've ever seen.

SYDNEY: I got something.

GEORGE: Oh, what you got?

Look at that.

How awesome is that?

So yeah, that's a nice tooth.

Look at that.

NARRATOR: For Sydney, special kind of surprise.

SYDNEY: It's kind of like and no one said happy birthday and it's been a long day, and everyone's waiting for you That's kind of what finding GEORGE: That is a nice tooth.

It is complete.

SYDNEY: It is complete.

GEORGE: Yeah.

It's a nice big piece of bone.

NARRATOR: For this father time spent on the beach together and could inspire a next * It's not long before the cliffs DR. GODFREY: Well, I can see and the cliff above it NARRATOR: This time it's The cliffs are off limits to and Dr. Godfrey, sought permission from DR. GODFREY: So, we've got a bit and some more bone back here.

We don't know if the two they might be associated from So what I'm going to do is, around this to see if I can NARRATOR: keeping the bone intact, is familiar to Godfrey.

DR. GODFREY: I think, the piece lower jaw, a filter feeding But what's interesting is that which is very unusual.

And as Marcus was digging down he knocked into something which but it turns out that it's from the extinct giant shark, But the tooth was broken and I've never seen a megalodon right along the cutting edge.

That's very interesting.

[waves crashing] NARRATOR: the fractured whale jaw is and taken back to the lab and hopefully Calvert Cliffs isn't the only prehistoric past is discovered.

JP HODNETT: Large bones are extremely rare.

Most of the time when we find So, we're excited to have and exciting coming out of TIM: JP Hodnett is the at Dinosaur Park in and he's unearthing fossils of during the Cretaceous period, between 145 and 65 million years JP: Our current hypothesis on is that is the upper arm bone Astrodon Johnstoni, here on the east coast of the It was an herbivore, so kind of of a giraffe.

Had a long neck, NARRATOR: Discovered in what the remains of the 30-foot-high are encased in iron ore rock.

JP: This is one of the few the entirety of the east coast that are rocks of this age NARRATOR: Kathy Forrester, lends a hand on today's dig.

KATHY FORRESTER: this is really an important because this is terrestrial.

This is dinosaurs here.

Dinosaurs and crocodilians much earlier than what you find So, it's a very different very different fossils.

NARRATOR: At the Calvert Marine Stephen Godfrey and Victor Perez extracted from the cliffs.

As they examine their find, DR. GODFREY: Yeah, so this is And I suspect that we're missing of it here, but what I find that it was broken here and those breaks would not just from the process of just from sediment building up I think, something before it was deposited on VICTOR PEREZ: I think we've found the culprit of that.

DR. GODFREY: Yeah.

VICTOR: I mean; this was I want DR. GODFREY: Yeah, Yep.

VICTOR: This fossil here came in This just kind of sawed off which this is actually from So, to compare that here to and this piece that we got is of that tooth.

And the fact that it broke like I've never really seen a shard could be the result of this this intensive force as the baleen whale.

DR. GODFREY: Right.

Right.

It would imply active predation Just chomp down on the jaw, That to me is amazing.

NARRATOR: What's also along Calvert Cliffs never stop ancient past.

GEORGE: There's something with each high tide.

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