NPS photo by Jack Wood.
When you think of the Grand Canyon, what comes to mind? A vast geologic wonderland of layered rocks in beautiful shades of red, orange, and tan? The power of the mighty Colorado River that carved its way down to the canyon floor? Most people do not think of fossils when they think of the Grand Canyon. Perhaps it is because dinosaur fossils, the most charismatic group of prehistoric animals, are not found here. However, the canyon preserves a rich history of life on Earth that stretches back over a billion years. The fossil record of Grand Canyon National Park contains a wide variety of organisms, from ancient bacterial colonies to Ice Age mammals.
NPS photo by Jack Wood.
To mark the centennial of Grand Canyon National Park, Park Service paleontologists are undertaking an inventory project to summarize the park’s fossil record in a comprehensive report. This project has involved field surveys to document and collect important new fossils from the canyon, planning a National Fossil Day celebration, and digitizing fossils from the park’s museum collections via 3D photogrammetry. With this technology, many photographs of an object are taken from all angles, and these photographs are digitally stitched together into a 3D model. This method was used on fossils housed within Grand Canyon’s research collection to make them available for everyone to enjoy in digital form.
Grand Canyon Collections—Paleontology in 3D
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- Sites: Geologic Resources Division, Grand Canyon National Park
Interactive 3D Model of fossil trackways from Grand Canyon National Park.
- Sites: Geologic Resources Division, Grand Canyon National Park
Interactive 3D Model Collected from the Kaibab Limestone in Grand Canyon National Park. Holotype specimen.
- Sites: Geologic Resources Division, Grand Canyon National Park
Interactive 3D Model Collected from the Kaibab Limestone in Grand Canyon National Park. Specimen was formerly on display at the Yavapai Geology Museum.
- Sites: Geologic Resources Division, Grand Canyon National Park
Interactive 3D Model Pleistocene subfossil collected from a cave in the Grand Canyon during a 1936-1937 Civilian Conservation Corps expedition.
- Sites: Geologic Resources Division, Grand Canyon National Park
Interactive 3D Model Collected from the Bright Angel Shale in Grand Canyon National Park.
- Sites: Geologic Resources Division, Grand Canyon National Park
Interactive 3D Model Pleistocene giant ground sloth recovered from Rampart Cave. Collected in the 1930's during excavation work within the cave. In addition to bones, this cave also preserved pieces of sloth fur and large amounts of sloth manure.
- Sites: Geologic Resources Division, Grand Canyon National Park
Interactive 3D Model Collected from the Kaibab Limestone in Grand Canyon National Park.
- Sites: Geologic Resources Division, Grand Canyon National Park
Interactive 3D Model Collected from the Hermit Shale in Grand Canyon National Park by Frank Richardson in 1938.
- Sites: Geologic Resources Division, Grand Canyon National Park
Interactive 3D Model Pleistocene subfossil collected from a cave in Grand Canyon National Park.
- Sites: Geologic Resources Division, Grand Canyon National Park
Interactive 3D Model These tracks, located in a large fallen block of the Coconino Sandstone within Grand Canyon National Park are evidence of early tetrapods inhabiting deserts during the late Paleozoic (early Permian).
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- Geologic Resources Division
NPS-Smithsonian Collaboration Promotes Public and Scientific Access to Important Fossils
Paleontologists and staff from both the National Park Service (NPS) and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (USNM) have been working together to develop a website of interactive 3-D computer models featuring important fossils collected from several NPS areas and which are maintained in the collections of the USNM. Read more about how these 3D models are made and how to interact with them.
Last updated: May 30, 2023