“He was keeping it to give to the right museum,” says Kelsie Abrams, fossil lab manager at the Burke (pictured at top). Last summer, during the Burke team’s fieldwork season, Maltese handed Chowder over to Sidor and Abrams. If alive today, a clam like Chowder could hold hundreds of pounds of meat. But the clam wasn’t the only exciting fossil the Burke team brought home in the summer of 2024. Both Chowder and Ahhnold have generated waves of excitement, not just at the museum but online as well—a short video on Chowder has drawn about 2 million views.