Ashfall Fossil Beds is a fossil deposit in northeastern Nebraska where a massive volcanic ash fall roughly twelve million years ago, originating from an eruption far to the west, buried a waterhole and suffocated the animals gathered there, preserving hundreds of complete rhinoceros, horse, camel and bird skeletons in the position in which they died. The site is preserved as a state park with an enclosed excavation building, where visitors can watch ongoing excavation of skeletons still partly embedded in ash.
Facts
Classification
Protected StatusNational Monument or Landmark 1 Protected StatusLocally or Regionally Protected 1 Connections
Caused By
Source Ashfall Fossil Beds (Wikipedia)
In Discipline
Source Ashfall Fossil Beds (Wikipedia)
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Sources
1. Ashfall Fossil Beds (Wikipedia)
Article text
The site was declared a National Natural Landmark on May 9, 2006.
Lead section (protected-status)
The site is protected as Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park, a 360-acre (150 ha) park that includes a visitor center with interpretive displays and working fossil preparation laboratory, and a protected ongoing excavation site, the Hubbard Rhino Barn, featuring fossil Teleoceras (native hippo-like ancestral rhin
In Discipline: Geomorphology, Lead paragraph
The Ashfall Fossil Beds of Antelope County in northeastern Nebraska are rare fossil sites of the type called lagerstätten that, due to extraordinary local conditions, capture an ecological "snapshot" in time of a range of well-preserved fossilized organisms
Caused By: Volcanism, Lead
Ash from a Yellowstone hotspot eruption 10-12 million years ago created these fossilized bone beds.
In Group: Cenozoic and Ice Age Fossil Sites, Lead sentence
The Ashfall Fossil Beds are especially famous for fossils of mammals from the middle Miocene geologic epoch.
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