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Introduction
The fossil record contained within the National Park System as a whole tells a remarkable story of evolution and the changing life on Earth through geologic time. Fossils in national parks are as old as 1.45 billion years old and are as young as from the Holocene. They provide evidence of the Cambrian explosion, the age of dinosaurs, and of mammal evolution.
Fossils from national parks record events as disparate as forests being engulfed in lava flows, a delicate insect wing becoming buried by sediment at the bottom of a lake bed, and nursery herd of Columbian mammoths dying in a catastrophic flood. Other notable national park fossils provide some of the oldest trackways of vertebrate animals that walked on land and the earliest evidence for human occupation of North America.
Paleoart
The National Park Service’s Paleontology Program is in the process of developing logos for all park units with particularly significant fossil records. These logos feature paleoart depicting ancient scenes as revealed by fossils found within the respective parks. Paleoart is an important tool that paleontologists use, in collaboration with specially trained artists, to create murals, sketches, and paintings to depict ancient life in order to animate the fossilized remains of plants and animals.
Most fossils are fragmentary. Fossils of vertebrates usually only consist of bones and/or teeth, and often consist of incomplete skeletons that are not in life position (e.g., not articulated). Plant fossils either consist of the woody parts of vegetation or impressions of leaves. Invertebrate fossils are usually only shells or other mineralized parts and rarely are comprised of the animals’ soft tissues.
Scenes Through Time
When placed in chronological order according to geologic time, the paleoart depicted in fossil park logos not only illustrates the animals and plants , but shows how life has changed through evolution.
Paleozoic scenes depict creatures and ecosystems that appear very foreign as compared to the modern organisms with whom we now inhabit the planet. The Mesozoic is filled with dinosaurs and fierce reptilian predators that ruled the oceans. Mammals begin to dominate in the Cenozoic, with animals and plants becoming more like contemporary species in the more recent past.
Pleistocene Scenes
Pleistocene scenes of the national parks are those of large mammals (megafauna) living in cooler wetter climates than those of today. During the Pleistocene, North America that was populated mammoths, mastodons, sloths, bison, camels, horses, short-faced bears, American lions, and saber-toothed cats.
Park landscapes in much of the country were much as they are now in terms of their overall topography and landforms, but with more vegetation, wetlands, springs, and lakes. Fluctuating sea levels caused coastlines to migrate and continental glaciations impacted the northern parts of the United States.
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White Sands National Park, New Mexico
Tularosa Basin, where the White Sands dunefield is now, was filled with giant lakes, streams, and grasslands. Mammoths, sloths, camels, American lions, and people lived in this lush landscape about 23,000 years ago. Fossil footprints reveal scenes of life along the shores of ancient Lake Otero.
Related Links
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White Sands National Monument (WHSA), New Mexico—[WHSA Geodiversity Atlas] [WHSA Park Home] [WHSA npshistory.com]
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Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, Nevada
Saber-toothed cats, long-horned bison, and condors lived in a wetland environment in southern Nevada during the Pleistocene when the climate was wetter. The landscape is an idealized representation of southern Nevada within what is now Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument.
Related Links
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Park Paleontology News—Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument – a Pleistocene treasure trove
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Tule Springs National Monument (TUSK), Nevada—[TUSK Geodiversity Atlas] [TUSK Park Home] [TUSK npshistory.com]
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Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska
Beringia was an unglaciated region at the peak of the last ice age that was home to an abundance of Pleistocene megafauna including mastodons ,woolly mammoth, woolly rhinos, horses, bison, lions, and short-faced bear. The Bering Land Bridge between Alaska and Siberia resulted from lower sea level.
Related Links
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Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (BELA), Alaska—[BELA Geodiversity Atlas] [BELA Park Home] [BELA npshistory.com]
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Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
The Pleistocene Grand Canyon had more woodland vegetation than today and was inhabited by Shasta ground sloths, Harrington mountain goats, vampire bats, and other animals that utilized caves within the canyon walls.
Grand Canyon’s sedimentary rocks hold a much older fossil record (Precambrian through the Permian) with diverse marine invertebrates, terrestrial plants, and vertebrate and invertebrate trackways.
Related Links
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[GRCA Evolution case study]
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Grand Canyon National Park (GRCA), Arizona—[GRCA Geodiversity Atlas] [GRCA Park Home] [GRCA npshistory.com]
Other parks with important Pleistocene fossils:
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Channel Islands National Park (CHIS), California—[CHIS Geodiversity Atlas] [CHIS Park Home] [CHIS npshistory.com]
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Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (GLCA), Arizona and Utah—[GLCA Geodiversity Atlas] [GLCA Park Home] [GLCA npshistory.com]
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Joshua Tree National Park (JOTR), California—[JOTR Geodiversity Atlas] [JOTR Park Home] [JOTR npshistory.com]
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Waco Mammoth National Monument (WACO), Texas—[WACO Geodiversity Atlas] [WACO Park Home] [WACO npshistory.com]
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Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve (YUCH), Alaska—[YUCH Geodiversity Atlas] [YUCH Park Home] [YUCH npshistory.com]
Cenozoic Scenes
Cenozoic scenes of the national parks reveal the age of mammals and show how terrestrial and marine environments were evolving through time. Flowering plants became dominant and grasslands later appeared. The continents were inhabited by changing faunas as animals like horses evolved. Ecological niches in the oceans were filled by bivalves and stony corals, and marine mammals emerged as the largest animals in the aquatic environment.
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Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, Idaho
The Hagerman Horse, a species more closely related to zebras than modern domesticated horses, lived along with 140 other species including ground sloths, mastodons, beavers, saber-toothed cats, and birds in a lush environment of wetlands, forests, and grasslands between 3 and 4 million years ago.
Related Links
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Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument (HAFO), Idaho—[HAFO Geodiversity Atlas] [HAFO Park Home] [HAFO npshistory.com]
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Channel Islands National Park, California
Fossils from the Channel Islands provide a glimpse into Miocene marine life including sirenians (sea cows), whales and dolphins, other aquatic mammals, and mollusks. The park’s diverse fossil record includes that of the Pleistocene pygmy mammoth, birds, and plants.
Related Links
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Park Paleontology News—Paleontology of Channel Islands National Park
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Channel Islands National Park (CHIS), California—[CHIS Geodiversity Atlas] [CHIS Park Home] [CHIS npshistory.com]
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Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska
Moropus, a type of chalicothere (a herbivorous ungulate) lived in the open savanna grasslands on western Nebraska, along with rhinos, entelodonts, and beardogs during the Miocene.
Related Links
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Agate Fossil Beds—Fossils and Paleontology of Agate Fossil Beds
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Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO), Nebraska—[AGFO Geodiversity Atlas] [AGFO Park Home] [AGFO npshistory.com]
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John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon
The rock record in the John Day Basin that spans from 44 to 7 million years ago contains a remarkable record of evolution and life across much of the Cenozoic. Conditions in central Oregon changed from hot and semitropical to cooler and drier with changing floras and faunas over the time period.
Related Links
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John Day Fossil Beds National Monument (JODA), Oregon—[JODA Geodiversity Atlas] [JODA Park Home] [JODA Npshistory.com]
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Fossil Butte National Monument, Wyoming
A vast freshwater lake in southwestern Wyoming 52 million years ago supported a variety of ecosystems in and around it in a warm to temperate climate. The lake was inhabited by at least 27 fish species and turtles, crocodilians, mammals, and flowering plants lived along its shoreline.
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Fossil Butte National Monument (FOBU), Wyoming—[FOBU Geodiversity Atlas] [FOBU Park Home] [FOBU npshistory.com]
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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
The Yellowstone area was richly forested with angiosperms (flowering plants) such as oaks, poplars, and walnuts, as well as conifers, and inhabited by a variety of mammals. Other flowering plants, ferns, and horsetails also grew in the warm and humid climate.
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Yosemite National Park (YOSE), California—[YOSE Geodiversity Atlas] [YOSE Park Home] [YOSE npshistory.com]
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Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Titanotheres, also called brontotheres, were large herbivores that lived during the Eocene in open areas near the subtropical forests of the time.Badlands’ fossil record also includes a great abundance of Oligocene mammals.
Related Links
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Badlands National Park (BADL), South Dakota—[BADL Geodiversity Atlas] [BADL Park Home] [BADL npshistory.com]
Other parks with important Cenozoic fossils:
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Colonial National Historical Park (COLO), Virginia—[COLO Geodiversity Atlas] [COLO Park Home] [COLO npshistory.com]
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Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (FLFO), Colorado—[FLFO Geodiversity Atlas] [FLFO Park Home] [FLFO npshistory.com]
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Vicksburg National Military Park (VICK), Louisiana and Mississippi—[VICK Geodiversity Atlas] [VICK Park Home] [VICK npshistory.com]
Mesozoic Scenes
Life during the Mesozoic Era (e.g., the Age of Reptiles) is revealed by fossils in national parks. These scenes from national parks show how life changed during this time interval that was impacted by major extinctions, new groups of reptiles emerging, dinosaurs becoming dominant, and then diversifying greatly before they became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. Flowering plants also first appeared in the Cretaceous.
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Big Bend National Park, Texas
Quetzalcoatlus which was among the largest pterosaurs that ever lived soared over dinosaurs and river floodplains near the end of the Cretaceous in Big Bend National Park. The approaching Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction soon drastically altered life on Earth.
Related Links
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Big Bend National Park (BIBE), Texas—[BIBE Geodiversity Atlas] [BIBE Park Home] [BIBE npshistory.com]
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Denali National Park, Alaska
The Late Cretaceous was the height of dinosaur diversity. Alaska had a mild climate with warm summers with forests where dinosaurs roamed. Tyrannosaurs and hadrosaurs left their footprints in the ancient mudflats of Denali.
Related Links
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Denali National Park and Preserve (DENA), Alaska—[DENA Geodiversity Atlas] [DENA Park Home] [DENA npshistory.com]
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Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
The Cretaceous was a time of abundant life where Bryce Canyon National Park is now. Hadrosaurs and small mammals lived on land, and angiosperms bloomed. And the seas were filled with ammonites and bivalves.
Related Links
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Park Paleontology News—One Hundred Years of Bryce Canyon–Over Fifty Million Years of Fossils
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Bryce Canyon National Park (BRCA), Utah—[BRCA Geodiversity Atlas] [BRCA Park Home] [BRCA npshistory.com]
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Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico
The Western Interior Seaway that covered New Mexico in the Cretaceous was ruled by mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, both fierce reptilian predators, who hunted ammonites and fish.
Related Links
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Chaco Culture National Historical Park (CHCU), New Mexico—[CHCU Geodiversity Atlas] [CHCU Park Home] [CHCU npshistory.com]
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Dinosaur National Monument, Utah and Colorado
Where Dinosaur National Monument is now, a terrestrial environments of rivers, floodplains, lakes, and wetlands was teaming with life 157 to 150 million years ago. It was inhabited not only by Allosaurus, Apatosaurus, and Stegosaurus, but by other reptiles, small mammals, and freshwater mussels.
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Dinosaur National Monument (DINO), Colorado and Utah—[DINO Geodiversity Atlas] [DINO Park Home] [DINO npshistory.com]
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Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah, and Arizona
In the early Jurassic (nearly 200 million years ago), desert dune fields and interdunal oases in what is now southern Utah were inhabited by dinosaurs and relatives of early mammals. Both body fossils (bones) and trace fossils (tracks) tell of these ancient lives.
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Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (GLCA), Arizona and Utah—[GLCA Geodiversity Atlas] [GLCA Park Home] [GLCA npshistory.com]
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Zion National Park, Utah
In the Triassic, the Zion area hosted a variety of reptiles and stem mammals that lived along ancient river systems and floodplains.Later, in the Jurassic, dinosaurs left their footprints in the ancient sand dunes that covered this part of Utah then.
Related Links
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Zion National Park (ZION), Utah—[ZION Geodiversity Atlas] [ZION Park Home] [ZION npshistory.com]
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Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
Petrified Forest provides a compelling look at life in the Triassic. Crocodile-like phytosaurs, aquatic reptiles, turtles, frogs, and fish lived in the rivers and wetlands of Chinle ecosystem. The abundant vegetation included conifers, ginkgoes, cycads, ferns, and horsetails. Log jams in the rivers left extensive deposits of petrified wood.
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Petrified Forest National Park (PEFO), Arizona—[PEFO Geodiversity Atlas] [PEFO Park Home] [PEFO npshistory.com]
Other parks with important Mesozoic fossils:
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Arches National Park (ARCH), Utah—[ARCH Geodiversity Atlas] [ARCH Park Home] [ARCH npshistory.com]
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Capitol Reef National Park (CARE), Utah—[CARE Geodiversity Atlas] [CARE Park Home] [CARE npshistory.com]
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Colorado National Monument (COLM), Colorado—[COLM Geodiversity Atlas] [COLM Park Home] [COLM npshistory.com]
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Katmai National Park and Preserve (KATM), Alaska—[KATM Geodiversity Atlas] [KATM Park Home] [KATM npshistory.com]
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Lake Clark National Park and Preserve (LACL), Alaska—[LACL Geodiversity Atlas] [LACL Park Home] [LACL npshistory.com]
Paleozoic Scenes
Relative to modern living things, life was indeed ancient in the Paleozoic. Scenes from national parks illustrate the early animals that populated the oceans. Trilobites were dominant predators in the early Paleozoic, but were later replaced by fish and cephalopods. Major extinctions at the end of the Ordovician and Devonian reshaped marine life. During the Paleozoic, life first appeared on land.
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Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas
The Permian reef of Guadalupe Mountains National Park was made of many types of invertebrates, including sponges, horn corals, bryozoans, brachiopods, and crinoids. Cephalopods, sharks, and bony fish patrolled the waters above the reef.
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Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GUMO), Texas—[GUMO Geodiversity Atlas] [GUMO Park Home] [GUMO npshistory.com]
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Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
More than 100 species of fossil sharks lived in the oceans where Mammoth Cave is now during the Mississippian Period (359-323 million years ago). The sea floor was carpeted with thickets of criniods and other diverse invertebrates including blastoids, horn corals, brachiopods, and nautiloids.
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Mammoth Cave National Park (MACA), Kentucky—[MACA Geodiversity Atlas] [MACA Park Home] [MACA npshistory.com]
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Death Valley National Park, California and Nevada
Heterostracans (jawless armored fish) swam in shallow waters in the Devonian Period where Death Valley is now. These primitive fish became extinct at the end of the Devonian Period.
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Death Valley National Park (DEVA), California and Nevada—[DEVA Geodiversity Atlas] [DEVA Park Home] [DEVA npshistory.com]
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Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, New Jersey and Pennsylvania
Eurypterids (sea scorpions) were fearsome predators of the Silurian oceans approximately 435 million years ago. The seas were also populated by trilobites, bryozoans, rugose (horn) corals, and gastropods.
Related Links
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Park Paleontology News—The Delaware Water Gap: A Window Into Earth’s Early Oceans
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Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (DEWA), New Jersey and Pennsylvania—[DEWA Geodiversity Atlas] [DEWA Park Home] [DEWA npshistory.com]
Other parks with important Paleozoic fossils:
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Carlsbad Caverns National Park (CAVE), New Mexico—[CAVE Geodiversity Atlas] [CAVE Park Home] [CAVE npshistory.com]
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Grand Canyon National Park (GRCA), Arizona—[GRCA Geodiversity Atlas] [GRCA Park Home] [GRCA npshistory.com]
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Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument (PARA), Arizona—[PARA Geodiversity Atlas] [PARA Park Home] [PARA npshistory.com]
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Great Basin National Park (GRBA), Nevada—[GRBA Geodiversity Atlas] [GRBA Park Home] [GRBA npshistory.com]
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Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MISS), Minnesota—[MISS Geodiversity Atlas] [MISS Park Home] [MISS npshistory.com]
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Mojave National Preserve (MOJA), California—[MOJA Geodiversity Atlas] [MOJA Park Home] [MOJA npshistory.com]
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Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve (YUCH), Alaska—[YUCH Geodiversity Atlas] [YUCH Park Home] [YUCH npshistory.com]
Last updated: February 28, 2025