Some fossil bones emit huge amounts of radon, a cancer-causing gas, so staying safe when storing or studying them is a real challenge. Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument found ways to overcome the problem through upgraded safety technology, but its story is a cautionary one.
The 2025 National Fossil Day Artwork features a 29-million-year-old Oligocene assemblage of plants and animals from the Turtle Cove Member of the John Day Formation, inspired by new and old discoveries made at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon.
National parks contain a rich diversity of invertebrate fossils. Some groups, particularly mollusks, are present in many national parks, but others are much more rare. Most invertebrate fossils in national parks are of marine organisms, although some parks have freshwater mollusks, and a few have fossils of terrestrial arthropods, mostly insects.
Graptolites are important index fossils for the early Paleozoic. They look like pencil marks on rock faces but are the remains of tiny colonial animals. Graptolite fossils are known from a handful of national parks.
Fossils of bryozoans (“moss animals”) that are typically found as part of marine assemblages in many national parks. These filter-feeding colonial animals were individually microscopic so even their colonies, usually shaped like branching twigs or net-like and lacy forms, themselves are quite small.
Most mollusks are of either bivalves, cephalopods, or gastropods. Cephalopods including nautiloids and ammonites were exclusively marine, bivalves inhabited both marine and freshwater environments, and gastropods lived in both aquatic and terrestrial environment. Overall, mollusks are the most common type of fossils found in national parks.
Crinoids are the most common echinoderm fossils in national parks, found mostly in Paleozoic rocks. Echinoderms have 5-sided symmetry and have skeletons composed of numerous small pieces, which break apart after death. Thus, most echinoderm fossils are only small bits of the larger organism.
Fossils of bryozoans (“moss animals”) that are typically found as part of marine assemblages in many national parks. These filter-feeding colonial animals were individually microscopic so even their colonies, usually shaped like branching twigs or net-like and lacy forms, themselves are quite small.
Brachiopods are one of the most common marine invertebrate fossils found in Paleozoic rocks in national parks. They were a dominant group of marine organisms during the Paleozoic, filling many of the ecological niches in Paleozoic oceans that bivalves have occupied since the end of Permian extinction, when most brachiopods became extinct.
A new rotund atrypid brachiopod species found in the summer of 2010 in Adams Inlet, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska.
NPS photo in Proceedings of the 2011 George Wright Society Conference.
To request a file for any of these articles, please contact us.
An Inventory of Paleontological Resources from Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska. R.B. Blodgett, V.L. Santucci, L. Sharman. Proceedings of the GWS Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and Cultural Sites. 2011. [568 KB PDF]
Interpreting a Billion-Year Record of Life Preserved Throughout the National Park System. V.L. Santucci. Legacy. 2011. [261 KB PDF]
An Overview of National Park Service Paleontological Resources from the Parks and Monuments in Utah. V.L. Santucci and J.I. Kirkland. in D.A. Sprinkel, T.C. Chidsey Jr., and P.B. Anderson (eds.), Geology of Utah's Parks and Monuments, Utah Geological Association Publication 28 (third edition). 2010. [5.07 MB PDF]
An Overview of the Paleontology of Upper Triassic and Lower Jurassic Rocks in Zion National Park, Utah. D.D. DeBlieux, J.I. Kirkland, J.A. Smith, J. McGuire, and V.L. Santucci. in J.D. Harris, S.G. Lucas, J.A. Spielman, M.G. Lockley, A.R.C. Milner, and J.I. Kirkland (eds.), The Triassic-Jurassic Terrestrial Transition. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 37. 2006. [5.7 MB PDF]
Fossils, Objects of Antiquity and the Antiquities Act. V.L. Santucci. Ranger, Vol. 22, No. 3. 2006. [3.07 MB PDF]
Historical Perspectives on Biodiversity and Geodiversity. V.L. Santucci. Geodiversity and Geoconservation. 2005. [213 KB PDF]
An Inventory of Paleontological Resources Associated with Caves in Grand Canyon National Park. J.P. Kenworthy, V.L. Santucci, and K.L. Cole. in C. van Riper III, and K.L. Cole (eds.), The Colorado Plateau: Cultural, Biological, and Physical Research. 2004. [1.63 MB PDF]
Dinosaur Tracks from the Cedar Mountain Formation (Lower Cretaceous), Arches National Park, Utah. M.G. Lockley, D. White, J. Kirkland, and V.L. Santucci. Ichnos, Vol. 11. 2004. [2.3 MB PDF]
Definition of a fossil. V.L. Santucci. Ranger. 2002. [2.8 MB PDF]
Crossing Park Boundaries in the study of ancient ecosystems. A.R. Fiorillo and V.L. Santucci. from D. Harmon (ed.), Crossing Boundaries in Park Management: Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Research and Resource Management in Parks and on Public Lands. 2001. [312 KB PDF]
Oil and Gas Management Planning and the Protection of Paleontological Resources: A Model Application at Lake Meredith and Alibates Flint Quarries. V.L. Santucci, A.P. Hunt, and L. Norby. Park Science, Vol. 21, No. 1. 2001. [1.8 MB PDF]
A Paleontological Approach to Managing Paleontological Resources. V.L. Santucci. Ranger. 1999. [73 KB PDF]
Battling Vandalism: Geologic resource protection training increases park vigilance. V.L. Santucci. Natural Resource Year in Review. 1999. [229 KB PDF]
Early Discoveries of Dinosaurs From North America and the Significance of the Springfield Armory Dinosaur Site. V.L. Santucci. 1998. [79 KB PDF]
