| Arizona (Coconino County), Page — Dinosaur Tracks |
| | The imprints were made by a one ton, twenty foot long, meat-eating dinosaur. The slab of sandstone came from a nearby side canyon.
When Dilophosaurus tracked through the silt 170 million years ago, this was a different landscape. Shallow streams meandered across a marshy plain.
Throughout Glen Canyon the red-orange layer of Kayenta sandstone appears - a lost world turned to stone, then river-cut and weathered into view. — Map (db m40326) HM |
| Arizona (Coconino County), Page — Saurischia Dinosaur Tracks |
| | These tracks were made by a three-toed dinosaur known as a Saurischia therapod. It lived here about 170 million years ago during the Jurassic era when the environment was tropical. The footprints are raised natural sandstone castings of the original dinosaur tracks. After the dinosaur walked through sandy mud, its dried tracks were filled by more mud which eventually hardened into rock of the Kayenta formation. Later, the Kayenta layer tilted and spalled revealing the castings as well as the . . . — Map (db m40321) HM |
| California (Kern County), McKittrick — 498 — McKittrick Brea Pit — California Historical Landmark |
| | Located one-eigth mile west of here is ancient asphaltum seepage in which hundreds of Pleistocene (15,000 - 50,000 years ago) birds and animals were trapped. Site first explored in 1925 by the University of California, with excavation completed in 1949 by Los Angeles and Kern County Museums.
State Registered Historical Landmark No. 498
Marker placed by Kern County Historical Society, Miocene Parlor No. 228 N.D.G.W., El Tejon Parlor No. 238 N.D.G.W., and Kern County Museum. — Map (db m42707) HM |
| California (Los Angeles County), Los Angeles — Chester Stock, Ph.D. - Observation Pit — Hancock Park — Rancho La Brea |
| | Panel 1: Chester Stock, Ph.D. January 28, 1892 - December 7, 1950 Paleontalogist
Chief curator of science - Los Angeles County Museum Chairman of the Division of Geological Sciences California Institute of Technology who, encouraged by the foresight and generosity of G. Allan Hancock, inspired his many co-workers in developing and preserving the treasures of Rancho La Brea Presented by the Los Angeles County Museum Association. Panel 2: Observation Pit . . . — Map (db m51436) HM |
| California (Orange County), Laguna Beach — 28 — Fossil Reef |
| | Before you are the white limestone remains of an 18,000,000 year old tropical shell reef. Formed in a shallow bay. It contains fossils of scallops, clams, and tube worms. Mudstones of the same age, found nearby, held fossil whales and shark teeth. Later, as the Santa Ana Mountains rose, the rigid limestone buckled and broke along small faults. We can now see evidence that tropical seas once covered the spot where you stand. — Map (db m50013) HM |
| Colorado (Jefferson County), Morrison — Front Range Foothills |
| | You are looking out over the edges of tilted and eroded layers of sandstone and shale that lie upon much older rocks in the mountains behind you. If the eroded layers were restored to where you stand they would be more than two miles thick. The sandstone and shale were deposited as flat layers of sand and mud in streams, lakes and shallow seas during a time that began about 300 million years ago and ended about 70 million years ago. Later, the flat layers were bent upward during the rise of the . . . — Map (db m57932) HM |
| Connecticut (New Haven County), New Haven — Othniel Charles Marsh |
| | Othniel Charles Marsh
Born at Lockport, N.Y. October 29, 1831. Died at New Haven, March 18, 1899
Professor of Paleontology in Yale University 1866 – 1899
President of the National Academy of Sciences 1883 – 1895
Eminent as Explorer, Collector and Investigator in Science
To Yale University he gave his services, his collections and his estate — Map (db m50917) HM |
| District of Columbia (Washington), Foggy Bottom — GW's River Horse — [Lisner Auditorium] |
| | Legend has it that the Potomac was once home to these wondrous beasts.
George and Martha Washington are even said to have watched them cavort in
the river shallows from the porch of their beloved Mount Vernon on summer evenings.
Credited with enhancing the fertility of the plantation, the Washingtons believed
the hippopotamus brought them good luck and children on the estate often attempted
to lure the creatures close enough to the shore to touch a nose for good luck.
So, too, . . . — Map (db m46980) HM |
| Florida (Brevard County), Titusville — F-486 — Windover Archaeological Site |
| | Discovered by accident in 1982, the Windover site is a burial place of Early Native Americans who inhabited this region 7,000 to 8,000 years ago. The burials were placed underwater in the peat of the shallow pond. This peat helped to preserve normally perishable artifacts and human tissues. The site contains the largest skeletal sample in the New World and the oldest bottle gourd found north of Mexico - two features that add to its significance. It also includes the largest and most complex . . . — Map (db m60342) HM |
| Florida (Saint Johns County), Switzerland — William Bartram Scenic Highway |
| | Within a mile and a half of this marker are numerous prehistoric sites, several of which date from 2000 BC Native Americans occupied the Northern river section from about 4000 BC until the arrival of Europeans after 1500 AD.
Riverbank settlements, permanent villages, and small seasonal campsites were common prehistoric site types. Abundant natural resources provided inhabitants with opportunities to hunt, fish and collect shellfish and plants.
By the 1770's, when William . . . — Map (db m61973) HM |
| Florida (Sarasota County), Venice — 1926 Article From "Venice News" |
| | "It's a mammoth," voiced Dr. J. W. Gidley, Paleontologist of the Smithsonian Institute, 15 minutes after he first saw the fossil tusks and jaw bone of the prehistoric monster found in Venice. The size of the tusks indicates that it probably stood 14 feet high and was probably 20 feet long. Found at the same time were bones of horses, bison, mastodon, sloths and camels.
"A fair estimate of the date when this mammoth perished would be about half a million years ago," Dr. Gidley said. The . . . — Map (db m32747) HM |
| Florida (Volusia County), Port Orange — Bongoland |
| | Several attempts were made to operate Dunlawton Plantation as a tourist attraction in the the 1950's Dr. Perry Sperber leased the premises from J. Saxon Lloyd for a park to display prehistoric monsters and had a number of replicas, molded in concrete on wire frames constructed. The park was called "Bongoland" in honor of a large baboon housed on the grounds an Indian village was also reproduced and a small train carried visitors around. But the day of the theme parks had not yet come and . . . — Map (db m34878) HM |
| Florida (Volusia County), South Daytona — Giant Ground Sloth |
| | On this site in 1975 was found the best preserved and most complete giant ground sloth ever found in North America.
The sloth weighed three to five tons, stood thirteen feet tall and was a vegetarian.
An estimated fifty species of animals were unearthed approximately twelve feet below the surface of the ground. The age of these findings is estimated to be 130,000 years old. — Map (db m45449) HM |
| Idaho (Jerome County), Hunt — 276 — Prehistoric Hunters |
| | Bone fragments of extinct species of ground sloth, horse, camel, and elephant found in a nearby cave mingle with weapons and radiocarbon dates from Idaho’s earliest hunters.
Archaeologists have confirmed that people camped here at least 10,000 years ago, some suspect they might have arrived 6,000 years earlier. The youngest occupation layer began at 1300 A.D. and it includes figurines, baskets, moccasins and pottery---and bones of much smaller animals than those hunted by the Paleoindian pioneers. — Map (db m62963) HM |
| Indiana (Franklin County), Brookville — 24.1995.2 — Brookville's Carnegie Library |
| | Dedicated in 1912, starting with approximately 600 books; collections and services have expanded to meet needs of local patrons. One of 1, 679 libraries built in U.S. with funds from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Indiana built more Carnegie libraries than any other state. — Map (db m44694) HM |
| Kentucky (Boone County), Florence — 1253 — Boone County, 1798 |
| |
Formed by legislative act from a part of Campbell County. Names for Daniel Boone, renowned Kentucky pioneer-explorer.
Big Boone Lick, graveyard of the mammoth, was discovered in 1729 by Capt. M. de Longueil. In 1756, Mary Inglis was brought here by Shawnees, the first white woman in Kentucky. In 1765-66, extensive bone collection sent to England. — Map (db m61867) HM |
| Nebraska (Lancaster County), Lincoln — Mammuthus Columbi |
| | Mammoths roamed Nebraska's grasslands for more than one million years before mysteriously disappearing between 11,000 and 10,000 years ago. These extinct relatives of today's elephants were the largest mammals ever to walk the Great Plains. Adult males stood more than 13 feet tall at the shoulder and had a weight of over 24,000 pounds. Mammoth bones and teeth have been found in Ice Age deposits in all but three of Nebraska's 93 counties. Bones and tusks were uncovered just 100 yards east of . . . — Map (db m54358) HM |
| Nebraska (Sioux County), Harrison — Fossil Hills Trail — Agate Fossil Beds National Monument — National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior |
| | The hills held ancient secrets for paleontologists. The two hills in the distance don’t look like anything special. Even up close the untrained eye will see nothing astounding. But a sandstone layer near the bases of the hills has yielded one of the richest concentrations of fossilized mammal remains ever discovered.
Since 1904, paleontologists have been uncovering fossil bones here which greatly contribute to our knowledge of prehistoric mammals. Today many of these fossils are studied and . . . — Map (db m62064) HM |
| New Jersey (Camden County), Haddonfield — Hadrosaurus Foulkii |
| | In a marl pit on the John E. Hopkins farm in October 1858, the world’s first nearly complete dinosaur skeleton was unearthed by William Parker Foulke. The find was adjacent to this point. This was also the first dinosaur skeleton to ever be mounted. The bones represented a 25 foot, 7-8 ton herbivorous hadrosaurus (reptile). Its height probably ranged from 6-10 feet at the hips. Some 55 of an estimated 80 bones were discovered. This creature lived 70-80 million years ago during the Cretaceous . . . — Map (db m29239) HM |
| New York (Albany County), Cohoes — Cohoes Mastodon |
| |
Site of
Cohoes
Mastodon
Found September 1866
Now in N. Y. State Museum
— Map (db m40818) HM |
| New York (Albany County), Cohoes — The Cohoes Mastodont |
| | The Cohoes Mastodont was discovered during the excavation for Harmony Mill #3 in 1866. The mill is sometimes referred to as the "Mastodon Mill" for this reason. When all the bones were recovered, they were kept at the Harmony Mills Office on exhibit, where they were seen by hundreds of people. The discovery was a nationwide sensation, generating considerable press coverage and controversy. In 1867, the skeleton was transferred to state ownership and exhibited in the State Cabinet of Natural . . . — Map (db m41622) HM |
| New York (Chautauqua County), Irving — Everett R. Burmaster |
| | 1890-1965 lived in Irving. Historian, Archaeologist, Paleontologist, BMS Curator. Seneca adopted-Gahgewa. Saved Hanover Elm & Sottle Fiddle. — Map (db m64672) HM |
| New York (Orange County), Montgomery — Mastadon Dig 1800 |
| | 1st U.S. Science expedition remains exhibited London & Amer. philosoph. Society, Philadelphia. Dig Painted by Charles W. Peale, 1810. — Map (db m49822) HM |
| Pennsylvania (Crawford County), Titusville — Titusvillia Drakei Caster |
| | In ancient seabottom rocks exposed in this stream, the Holotype Specimen of a rare fossil sponge was found by Paleontologist Kenneth E. Caster. In 1939 in recognition of the support which brought the sciences of geology and paleontology to such eminence he named this new species in honor of the oil industry's birthplace and its founder. — Map (db m64970) HM |
| Texas (Kendall County), Boerne — Cascade Cavern |
| | Probably formed during the Pleistocene epoch by the
underground passage of the Cibolo River, Cascade Cavern presents an interesting mix of geological, archeological,and historical features. It exhibits a combination of the joint and the dip and strike types of caverns, and is the home of a number of unusual animals, including cliff and leopard frogs, Mexican brown bats, and Cascade Cavern salamanders.
Archeological evidence uncovered near the cave indicates the presence of two Indian . . . — Map (db m46924) HM |
| Texas (Roberts County), Miami — 2039 — Fossil Beds — (three miles southeast) |
| | Cited as one of most prolific fossil fields of lower Pliocene age at time of discovery, these beds are about 13,000,000 years old. Geologists of Rio Bravo Oil Company found them in 1928 on C.C. Coffee Ranch, and their reports brought specialists from several major institutions to the area.
The fossil bones buried here included (among others) those of a prehistoric camel, a kind of antelope, horse, bone-crushing dog, mastodon and wild pig.
Further studies led scientists in 1941 to . . . — Map (db m55797) HM |
| Utah (Grand County), Crescent City — Copper Ridge Dinosaur Trackway |
| | Welcome to Copper Ridge. Here, you can see the
tracks of two different dinosaurs. The larger
were probably made by an Allosaurus,
while the smaller three toed tracks were made by
one of a number of smaller bipedal carnivorous
spedies. — Map (db m39259) HM |
| Virginia (Fairfax County), Great Falls — American Indians of the Potomac River — Riverbend Park — Potomac River Gorge Interpretive Trail |
| | Prehistoric people arrived along the shores of the Potomac River some 13,000 years ago. Slowly they transformed from semi-nomadic hunters into farmers and fishermen. Eventually, a group called the Nacotchtanks became the dominant tribe of the Washington D.C. area.
The Potomac River was a heavily traveled trade route by American Indians. In fact the word Nacotchtank translates to mean “at the trading town.” — Map (db m64316) HM |
| Virginia (Westmoreland County), Stratford — The Stratford Cliffs |
| | Approximately 17 million years ago, during the Miocene Epoch, these 150-foot-high cliffs along the Potomac River formed the ancient seashore. Rich Miocene fossil deposits, which exist in the 1 1/2 -mile-long series of Horsehead, Stratford and Nomini Cliffs, can only be found in several locations in the world. Fossil remains of salt-water crocodiles, whales, porpoises, turtles, rays and sharks can be discovered along the shoreline. This overlook is one of a few spots along Stratford's northern . . . — Map (db m34585) HM |
| Wyoming (Crook County), Sundance — Paha Sapa, Black Hills — Geologic History of the Lakotas' Sacred Hills |
| | Also known as "Temple of the Sioux," Sundance Mountain rises majestically in the southwest. It belongs to the Bear Lodge Mountain Range, which defines the northwestern edge of the Black Hills. It was named for the Plains Indians' religious ceremony—and in turn it provided the name for the town at its base, which dubbed one of its earliest and most notorious prisoners, the "Sundance Kid." In the Lakota language, the mountain is called Wi Wacipi Paha, which literally means Sun Dance . . . — Map (db m45541) HM |
| Wyoming (Crook County), Sundance — Petrified Trees — Fossils Give Clues to Wyoming's Paleo-Past |
| | Giant cypress trees growing today in swamps (or forested wetlands), such as these found in Louisiana's Pointe Lake, used to grow in Wyoming back when it was a warm, subtropical swamp - about 55 million years ago during the Late Paleocene epoch. Some of these ancient trees were buried under sediment and turned to stone. the three petrified trees located here were found during coal mining operations at the Eagle Butte Mine near Gillette. They were generously donated by Alpha Coal West, Inc., and . . . — Map (db m45539) HM |
| Wyoming (Crook County), Sundance — The Vore Buffalo Jump — Hunting Large Bison Took Teamwork and Ingenuity |
| | Located a short distance to the east and camouflaged by the red eroded landscape is the Vore Buffalo Jump. This sinkhole served early residents as a slaughterhouse. using the natural pit as a trap, hunters would capture bison in late fall by running a herd over the edge. Once killed, the animals were butchered to provide food and supplies for winter. The Coordinated Bison Hunt The hunters camped and made ceremonial preparations downwind and out of sight of the jump. Days before the hunt, . . . — Map (db m45537) HM |
| Wyoming (Lincoln County), Kemmerer — Fossil Butte |
| | Fossil Butte is a 50 million year old lakebed and one of the richest fossil resources in the world. It is part of the Green River Formation, a layer of rock composed of laminated limestone, mudstone, and volcanic ash. Complete paleo-ecosystems are preserved in the formation, which is the geologic remnant of the Green River Lake System of the Eocene era. Designated on October 23, 1972, Fossil Butte National Monument encompasses a part of land that was once under Fossil Lake.
Fossil Lake was . . . — Map (db m36624) HM |
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