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The Print

The name's Caitlyn, I'm a paleontologist that works on ancient fossils of the past. What I've started to notice about these fossils is that some of the animals now are very closely related to the fossils that my best friend and I have found. 

The one that we've been working on for a while first appeared in the Mesozoic era and now is occurring in the Cenozoic era. 

Today we found a newer looking but old almost wolf hybrid paw print. The only difference between this one is that it's fresher but looking at it, it's exactly the same as the one that was first found in 1923. 

What Katie and I don't understand is how that the same paw print that appears in 1923 appears yet again in 2015. It makes no sense, but I know that we're getting closer to finding something. 

"Katie, come look at this," I state to my best friend. 

"What'cha got there Caitlyn?" Katie asks in her breathy voice. 

"Well what I noticed is that just by looking at the paw prints the stature or body structure of the animals is exactly the same, It's as if they're the same creature," I state. 

Katie pulls out her magnifying glass and scans over the print, "Look," she states as she pulls out her tweezers and plucks a hair from the embedded specimen. 

"Holy shit," I breathe out the words as she puts it underneath a microscope. She motions for me to come over and have a look. 

Normally we wouldn't be looking at specimen particles outside underneath our tent, but this was a little too important to wait, we've been on this project for two years. I walk over to the table that held the microscope with the specimen. 

I peered into the scope and noticed that the hair had plenty of DNA on it for it to be fresher. I give Katie a confused look, "How was this on that, this looks like new hair," I state. 

"I don't know but we need to analyze it and place it into containment that way we can keep track of it," Katie states. 

I nod my head in agreement, "alright let me place it into the bag that way we can take it back to the trailer," I state as I grab a small plastic bag that has an orange tape strip along the zipper part to identify "Evidence."

I place the hair in the bag and walk it over to the styrofoam container and place the bag into it. I look over at Katie and I notice that behind her the sun is setting over the Watzmann mountains. Yes, we are in Germany, but we will be heading home once we've solved what this means in evolution and if there is an animal that is still around today that was around so many years ago.