NPS photo by Hallie Larsen.
Introduction
The fossil record present in national parks includes an incalculable number of individual fossils spanning more than a billion years of earth's history. Some of these fossils are one-of-a-kind or found nowhere else on the planet. Taken together, the paleontological resources of the National Park System are an essential part of the geoheritage of the United States.
Geoheritage (geologic heritage) encompasses the significant geologic features, landforms, and landscapes of the United States, including the rocks, minerals, fossils, and soils that comprise them. Geoheritage sites hold a wide range of values including scientific, aesthetic, cultural, ecosystem, educational, recreational, and tourism. Fossils and fossils sites are both important aspects of our geoheritage, particularly because of the evidence that they provide about the history of life and changing climates and environments throughout geologic time.
NPS photo.
Paleontological resources are found in at least 286 different units of the National Park System. Every fossil is a part of the geoheritage of national parks and helps tell the remarkable story of the history of life on Earth. But some types of fossils are more rare than others, and some are particularly compelling to people, like those of giant beasts like dinosaurs and mammoths that capture the imaginations of people of all ages. Other fossils are known for their remarkable beauty, like the rainbow-colored fossil wood in Petrified Forest National Park. These geodiversity highlights explore some of the breadth of the most significant paleontological resources of national parks.
Why Fossil are Rare
Mural by Roger Witter.
Only a few of the ancient organisms that once lived on Earth have been preserved as fossils. Fossilization usually only takes place when certain conditions are met. Rapid burial of dead animals and plants by sediment can impede decomposition, decay, and scavenging. It can also prevent the abrasion of bones, shells, and other remains by wave or water currents. Ancient organisms possessing hard body parts, such as shells, teeth, bones, or wood, are more likely to become fossils than those composed only of soft tissues. Additionally, fossils are much more likely formed in places with active sediment accumulation, making organisms that lived in some environments such as marine ones or in river floodplains much more likely to be fossilized than those who live in erosional environments such as mountainous terrains.
What Fossils Teach Us
NPS Photo by ReBecca Hunt.
Fossils and the rocks and deposits in which they occur are the record keepers for the history of life on Earth and how life has changed or evolved over the expanses of geologic time. Although the fossil record is not complete, it is remarkable for its scope, diversity, and richness. Fossils found in national parks help scientists, students, Junior Rangers, families, seniors, and other visitors learn about past environments and ecosystems, the interactions of organisms with each other and the environment, extinction events, and evolution.
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The scientific and educational values associated with fossils are an important part of our paleontological heritage. Fossil type specimens are the original specimens that were scientifically described when naming a new fossil species. Fossil type specimens (holotypes) are defined using the same scientific rules as those used in the description and naming of modern biological species.
Thousands of important fossil type specimens have been named from fossils collected within least 81 different national parks. Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is responsible for more fossil type specimen than any other unit of the National Park System.
The History of Paleontology in the NPS
National parks and national natural landmarks include many important fossil sites that are important places in the history of the science of paleontology in the United States. The history of paleontological research in lands now administered by the National Park Service predates the establishment of Yellowstone as the first national park in 1872 and the creation of the National Park Service in 1916.
Many notable figures in the history of North American paleontology, including Joseph Leidy, Othniel Charles Marsh, Edward Drinker Cope, Spencer Baird, Charles Doolittle Walcott, and John Wesley Powell, were involved in the field collection, scientific study, or curation of important fossils from areas now managed by the National Park Service.
Official State Fossils
NPS photo by Dan Johnson.
The majority of states across the United States have official state fossil(s). Like fossils preserved in national parks, state fossils are a great way to learn about paleontology and celebrate the geoheritage of the United States.
Lagerstätten
NPS photo.
The National Park System contains eight Lagerstätten, exceptionally rich fossil deposits. The paleontological richness of these sites have great geoheritage values as they provide particularly important insights into the history of life.
Four of these sites are concentration Lagerstätten that have a high number of fossils and four sites are conservation Lagerstätten with exceptional fossil preservation. Three additional Lagerstätten occur in National Natural Landmarks and one site is a National Historic Landmark.
Fossil Cycad National Monument—History
NPS History Collection, HFCA 2021.
Fossil Cycad National Monument was established in 1922 by President Warren G. Harding using the Antiquities Act. It was the third monument specifically to protect paleontological resources. The site located west of Hot Springs, South Dakota contained one of the world’s greatest concentrations of fossil plants known as cycadeoids, which resembled large pineapples.
However, this unit of the National Park System was deauthorized in 1957 because all the fossil cycadeoids near the surface had been collected from the monument. A small number of national park sites have been deauthorized for a variety of reasons through the years, but this one stands apart because of the loss of its primary resource.
Last updated: February 27, 2025