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Thursday, Jul. 8, 2021

Was a massive root system discovered under Devils Tower in Wyoming?

Christiana Dillard, Lead Stories

no

There is no "incredibly large petrified root system" under Devils Tower in Wyoming, contrary to a social media post.

The post has reappeared after being debunked when it was first posted four years ago. That debunk established that a picture of the "root system" under the 800-foot-tall rock formation was actually a diagram of root growth in sweet corn, and the post had come from a satirical website.

The post claimed scientists from the Wyoming State Parks Department had discovered the purported root system. But Devils Tower is a designated national monument, not a state park.

A spokesman for Wyoming state parks confirmed to Lead Stories that the original post came from a satirical site and that the "petrified root system" claim is not true.

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

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Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.

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