About

The rugged high peaks of Glacier National Park are a beautiful sight to behold, with people traveling from all around the globe to experience this iconic place. The rocks that compose those amazing peaks and valley walls hold the secrets to a time when this land was once covered by a vast shallow sea, a billion and a half years ago.

The terrain of Cuyahoga Valley National Park is diverse and often rugged. River terraces, steep valley walls, meandering streams, ravines, waterfalls, and rock ledges all give texture to the valley. The geologic evidence found in these features tells of seas, glaciers, and rivers that have all left an imprint on the land.

A fearsome predator of warm Cretaceous seas, the mosasaur was featured on the 2011 National Fossil Day artwork

The bedrock of Buffalo National River includes outcrops of nearly twenty different formations, all from the Paleozoic Era (541 to 252 million years ago), and primarily deposited under shallow marine conditions.

St. Croix National Scenic Riverway contains some of the most notable Cambrian fossil localities in the National Park System. Geological explorations beginning in the 1840s have revealed a fauna of brachiopods, snails and snail-like mollusks, trilobites, graptolites, burrowing animals, and others. These organisms populated the region between approximately 500 and 490 million years ago, when it was a shallow tropical sea.

In January 2017, a new fossil exhibit was dedicated at Big Bend National Park. The exhibit was the 20 year dream of park geologist Don Corrick. Through careful planning and strategic partnering, a design was put forth and funded. Park visitors who tour the new exhibit will be provided a wonderful fossil-focused experience and learn about the important fossil record preserved at Big Bend National Park.

Learn about giant fossil stromatolites in Capitol Reef National Park.

A surprising find in Mesa Verde National Park! G. William M. Harrison shares his story of discovering a chimaera egg case.

In the early spring of 2012, an old shoebox belonging to former NAU geologist professor. It contained micropaleontology slides that held conodonts and micro-vertebrate fossils that were a mystery. But not for long!