All across the park system, scientists, rangers, and interpreters are engaged in the important work of studying, protecting, and sharing our rich fossil heritage. Park Paleontology news provides a close up look at the important work of caring for these irreplaceable resources.
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Badlands National Park
Article 1: Revisiting The 1940 Badlands Expedition
The fossils of the “Protoceras channels” of the classic White River Badlands series are also among the least known. A joint South Dakota School of Mines and Technology–National Geographic expedition in 1940 collected fossils from these beds in what is now part of the South Unit of Badlands National Park, South Dakota. Field surveying in 2011 established the location of the 1940 base camp. Read more
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Petrified Forest National Park
Article 2: Meet Deb Wagner—Petrified Forest National Park’s Paleontology Lab Manager
Deb Wagner manages the fossil preparation lab at Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. She is responsible for a variety of tasks, from fossil preparation to managing lab supplies to tracking specimens. Among her recent projects was the molding and casting of a phytosaur skull. Read more
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Denali National Park & Preserve
Article 3: Following in the footsteps of giants: Dinosaur tracks in Denali National Park and Preserve
Dinosaur tracks have been found in the Cretaceous Cantwell Formation of Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, since 2005, with new discoveries almost every year. One recently discovered site, “the Coliseum”, shows hundreds of tracks of several kinds of dinosaurs on rocks that are now steeply tilted. Read more
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Article 4: A New Resource for Researching America's Elephants
Mammoths, mastodons, and other proboscideans are among the most familiar fossil organisms. An inventory complied by Jim Mead and others documents the occurrences of these animals in 63 National Park Service units. Read more
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Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument
Article 5: From the Ashes: how volcanologists can help paleontologists reconstruct the ancient past at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument
Although the fossils of Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, Idaho, are sometimes treated as a single “snapshot” of geologic time, they actually represent more than a million years. U.S. Geological Survey geologist Laura Walkup has been working to uncover ash beds in the deposits to provide better age control. Read more
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Curecanti National Recreation Area
Article 6: Survival is Still Tough for Dinosaurs at Curecanti National Recreation Area
Dinosaur fossils at Curecanti National Recreation Area, Colorado, are exposed to climatic and environmental factors that can rapidly destroy or rebury them. Park staff have instituted programs to study how best to protect them. One program tracks what happens to individual specimens. Another studies shoreline changes at the fossil sites. Read more
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Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument
Article 7: Paleontology in Parashant: No Bones About It
In late 2020, Geoscientists-in-the-Parks participants Holley Flora and Rose Weeks conducted a paleontological resource inventory in Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, Arizona. This monument has notable Paleozoic invertebrate fossils and Quaternary cave fossils. Fieldwork in this large, remote monument is both challenging and rewarding. Read more