Jarvis and Jarvisaur: Baseball Meets Paleontology

Reno Aces pitcher Bryce Jarvis is already living out most little boys’ dreams by becoming a professional baseball player. Now, his career is helping him cross paths with another traditional child’s interest thanks to the help of an outside source.

Aamon Jaeger has had a lifelong obsession with fossils and has turned that passion into becoming an Archeologist and Paleontologist. Self-admittedly, he was a terrible student in college, but he enjoyed being in the field working and was lucky that “they’re just here in your backyard” when you live in Montana, even if you had to hike miles to find them.

Over 13 years ago, he was able to convince a group of ranchers that he knew to allow him the chance to search for fossils on their property, and quickly Jaeger discovered a spot with a continuous layer of bone that developed into a full quarry. Over time, that has helped Jaeger build his paleontological excavation and preparation company, NorthWest Montana Fossils.

Though Jaeger and his company pull out 400-500 different bones in one season, it’s the recent discovery of a Metopasaur skull that has led him towards baseball. This skull, from the Metoposaur Koskinonodon family, is what’s known as a Triassic fossil, or “pre-dinosaur” as Jaeger puts it. In technicality, it falls under what’s called the Archosaur family.

“It’s about 85 percent complete, which is very notable,” Jaeger said. “Normally you don’t find skulls that complete in the 80th percentile. What’s very scientifically important about this skull is that it retained placement of about 60 percent of all of its teeth, including these bone-like tusks in their maxillary jaws as well.

“This is really going to help us identify the exact genus and species,” Jaeger continued. “I don’t want to speak too soon, but because this formation and this fossil era of time is semi-understudied, it could open the door to a new branch of the Metoposaur family.”

It is also significant to the Aces for the name that Jaeger has decided to give it: Jarvis.

“I didn’t know if it was real to be honest,” Bryce said of his reaction when initially told the news. “I would hope that’s a first for most people, but it’s cool. It’s an honor and I’m excited to see it in person.”

Jarvis, or “Jarvisaur” as Jaeger affectionally called it, was discovered last March on his Arizona property as their main headquarters in Montana is snowed in during the winter months. Within the first few years of operations, the company established an alternate site down in the northeastern part of Arizona, which became operational after five to six years of study.

Once able, Jaeger and his team brought Jarvis north to their main preparation facility back in Montana where his wife, Chantel, quickly got to work. Thus far, she has logged over 200 hours of restoration.

“She put her heart and soul into this one,” Jaeger said. "These Metoposaur skulls are not easy. There’s a lot of detail involved with them, and she put a lot of work into this guy.”

Past discoveries of Jaeger’s have been named after friends and family—and once even his cat, Pelé, named after the Brazilian soccer legend—but this time he turned to his love of baseball for inspiration.

“We had an opportunity when we were at Spring training in 2025 to get an autograph from Bryce Jarvis and Jake McCarthy, which we were not going to turn down,” Jaeger said. “So, we went to the live autograph session before the game, and they were both very nice, and you could tell Mr. Jarvis genuinely wanted to be there.

“It was such a great experience,” Jaeger continued. “It was everything that we wanted it to be. We thought, he’s not only on fire for baseball, but he’s active with the fans too, and what a nice individual. We decided the next specimen we find, we were going to name “Jarvis” or ‘Jarvisaur.’”

Bryce has become a favorite of Jaeger’s to watch pitch for the past three seasons now because of his ability to remain composed on the mound, and he has the trading card collection to prove it. While he feels for those who have a tough outing, Jaeger mentioned that Bryce’s even-keeled mannerisms make it seem that he never gets flustered and is “a cool cucumber.”

“It’s just kind of always been my demeanor,” Jarvis said. “There’s a lot of thoughts going on in my head and the best way that I’ve figured out how to block those out is to just be as emotionless as I can on the mound.

“It sneaks out every once in a while,” Jarvis continued. “I try to only let it sneak out when it’s in a good way, but that’s just kind of how I’ve always thrown. [It’s] how my dad taught me growing up, to be as stoic as you can and not let anyone guess what you’re thinking.”

To the best of his online internet research ability, Jaeger believes that Bryce is the first specific baseball player or team to be the namesake of a fossil. However, there are several more that Jaeger has in the works, also inspired by past fandoms.

Those include “HoJo,” named after his friend and discoverer ‘s favorite baseball player Howard Johnson, and “Moyer,” of course named after MLB icon Jamie Moyer and found on the same property as Jarvis. The latter earned its name because Moyer was the reason he got into baseball and was the first autographed ball that Jaeger ever received at about 12-years-old.

There’s even a site that Jaeger has named the “Downs Quarry,” named after former San Francisco Giants pitcher Kelly Downs whom Jaeger has had the chance to have out on digging. Notable finds that have worked their way into museums have made sure the Downs Quarry name is forever etched in history for notations and study.

“We’re hoping to have Jarvis start off as this is what we’re doing, and this is what I want to focus the next years of my career on,” Jaeger said. "Bringing baseball and fossils together by naming specimens and sites after baseball players that have been very significant in our life.”

It has now been about 10 years in Jaeger’s estimation that he has been digging for Triassic fossils, but in that time, this is only the second Metoposaur skull that he and his team have found. The first was his wife Chantel’s top discovery of her career, and Jaeger similarly ranks this most recent find as the best Metoposaur find of his career.

“It may seem small, as the skull is only about 16 inches long or so,” Jaeger said. "But these Metoposaurs [have grown] about 10-12 feet long, so they were pretty large with very big teeth. When anything gets over 200 million years old, it’s hard to find teeth along with those skulls as they’re usually separated or eroded out.”

The scientific benefit from Jarvis will no doubt be immense, however it slots in second among his overall finds as Jaeger’s No. 1 discovery remains that of his cat-inspired specimen Pelé that is currently on display in Abu Dhabi.

“I’m honored that he thought of me and thought it would be a good name for it,” Jarvis said. “If you can’t be the biggest, you might as well be the second biggest.”

Recently, Bryce has entered Reno’s top 10 for career innings pitched, forever etching his name in Aces record books. Jaeger says that will also be the case in another industry.

“I’m really excited to have Jarvisaur concrete in the paleontological history,” Jaeger said. “This will be a specimen that scholars for generations to come will turn to in order to do different studies for species identification and things like that. The name Jarvis is going to be used quite a bit in the paleontological world for this era.”

Jaeger's goal in naming Jarvis was to bring together two different worlds that are already connected by a single thread: history. He seeks to connect baseball, America’s pastime with a legacy that stands as one of America’s oldest sports, and fossils, items that transport paleontologists back to a time before humans walked the earth.

“I think that we’re all in our own way kind of treasure hunters, we’re all kind of going after that next home run if you will,” Jaeger said. “I think it’s fantastic like with the Hall of Fame when things get embalmed in history, they are there forever. It’s the same with these specimens when they can be unearthed, brought back to light, and put on display for millions of people to see. They are now completely, 100 percent, document in history, and I would love to have the two worlds collide.”

These discoveries have helped Jaeger become a Triassic power hitter of sorts, and he notes that his company NorthWest Montana Fossils has shifted its main focus of operations to Triassic fossils.

"We have found some very world-class specimens that are on display in very large natural history museums, and Jarvis is going to be along with it,” Jaeger said.

Thinking back to his childhood and his interest in dinosaurs, Bryce remembers going through a brief dinosaur phase as most children do. When he used to visit his grandparents in Lexington, Ken., he would see a dinosaur park along the way. While he did not have a favorite when he was younger, there is one that Bryce has taken to as he’s gotten older.

“[There’s] not a specific favorite, but I feel like as I’ve gotten older and through watching Jurassic Park, the Raptors are pretty cool,” Jarvis said.

Though they are not Raptors, Jaeger noted that those in Reno are just over an hour east of the Lovelock, Nev. area where the “Fossil Hill Formation” is located; a large area of Triassic deep ocean and deep marine layers that have turned into limestone. It holds special significance to Nevada as Jaeger says it was home to Nevada’s state fossil, Ichthyosaur, which often grew to be between 15-20 feet long with serrated teeth.

Jaeger, Chantel, and “Jarvis” will now make the trek from Montana down to Reno where they will be a part of the pregame festivities prior to Reno’s Aug. 28 contest against the Sacramento River Cats. Part of those duties will include tossing the ceremonial first pitch as well as showcasing his collection of cards and fossils on the concourse during the game, in addition to another pregame meet up with Bryce.

“I’m beyond excited to have a part of Reno Aces and paleontological history,” Jaeger said. “We really appreciate Bryce for being receptive to this. This is going to be the opportunity of a lifetime.

“When I was a kid, it was a Montana kid’s dream to go to a professional sporting event because we don’t have anything like that,” Jaeger continued. “It’s really cool as an adult to be able to do this and find these ways to participate.”