Paleontological resource inventory and monitoring—Southern Colorado Plateau Network

Tweet, Justin; Santucci, Vincent; Kenworthy, Jason; Mims, Alison

This report presents a paleontological resource summary for the parks of the Southern Colorado Plateau Network. The summary was compiled through extensive literature reviews and interviews with park staff and professional geologists and paleontologists. Preliminary paleontological resource management recommendations are also included for each park. Including this report, summaries have been prepared for 26 of 32 NPS Inventory and Monitoring Networks. The National Inventory and Monitoring Program has provided funding to complete paleontological resource summaries for each of the remaining networks.The paleontological resources known from the parks of the Southern Colorado Plateau Network (SCPN) span a vast period of time, at least 1.2 billion years, from the Precambrian to the late Cenozoic. Fossil organisms are particularly well known from the Permian through the Cretaceous and the Quaternary, as well as fossils found in cultural resource contexts (especially artifacts made of petrified wood). Park fossils, in particular those of Grand Canyon National Park and Petrified Forest National Park, are spread among a number of institutions.Almost all of the parks and monuments have at least a few fossils from cultural resource contexts, ranging from petrified wood or chert used for tools and other artifacts, to extinct mountain goat dung and horn sheaths incorporated into shrines, to at least one dwelling made of petrified wood. Extensive and diverse fossil resources are known from Chaco Culture National Historical Park (Cretaceous and Quaternary fossils), Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (particularly Paleozoic and Mesozoic tracks, Cretaceous marine fossils, and Quaternary fossils), GRCA (particularly Precambrian fossils, Paleozoic marine fossils, and Quaternary mammal dung and packrat middens), Mesa Verde National Park (particularly Cretaceous marine fossils), and PEFO (particularly Triassic plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates).Several other parks have in situ fossils. Bandelier National Monument has Quaternary material, and El Malpais National Monument has isolated reports of Permian, Cretaceous, and Quaternary fossils; in both cases, the reports are recent and the extent of the fossils is unknown. Canyon de Chelly National Monument is known for its extensive record of Triassic plant fossils, but also has Permian tracks and Quaternary fossils. Navajo National Monument is adjacent to notable Jurassic finds and may have Quaternary fossils. A dinosaur track dating to the Early Jurassic is known from Rainbow Bridge National Monument. Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument has Permian marine fossils and tracks, and there are reports of a now-lost mammoth skeleton as well. Walnut Canyon National Monument and Yucca House National Monument both have marine fossils, dating to the Permian at WACA and the Cretaceous at YUHO. Permian marine fossils, Triassic tracks, and Quaternary fossils are known from Wupatki National Monument.The fossil resources of Aztec Ruins National Monument, El Morro National Monument, Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, and Petroglyph National Monument are currently limited to fossils from cultural resource contexts and fossils in park collections. The only SCPN unit with no known fossil resources is Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, which is not surprising because its surficial geology is mostly covered by igneous rocks that were erupted from the namesake volcano less than a thousand years ago. Not only does the combined fossil record of the SCPN units have only a few gaps from the Devonian to the Cretaceous, it also includes very ancient records of life and extensive records of the last few tens of thousands of years. These recent fossils are important for reconstructing the climate of the American Southwest and forecasting its changes.

Paleontological resource inventory and monitoring—Southern Colorado Plateau Network

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