Fossil Butte National Monument, Wyoming
The fossil record preserved within the Eocene Green River Formation of Fossil Basin is world-renowned. Over 100 years of intensive collecting has revealed a wide diversity of fossil fish, reptiles, birds, mammals, insects, and plants. Discoveries of new fossil species from the ancient lake sediments continue to expand understanding of the paleoecosystem. The fossils are from 50 million years ago after the dinosaurs had died off.
Most notably, the quality of fossil preservation is extraordinary, nearly unparalleled in the fossil record. The quiet-water, fine-grained lake sediments, and water conditions that excluded scavengers combined to preserve articulated skeletons (all bones are in place rather than scattered). Delicate fossils, rarely preserved elsewhere, yield valuable scientific data. My mother had a fossil fish from here from the 1930’s.
I also loved the Wyoming traffic sign and I went by Bear Lake on the border of Idaho and Utah on my way to City of Rocks.
