Agate Fossil Beds National Monument

Last updated
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument
Agathe National Monument10.jpg
University and Carnegie Hills fossil beds
USA Nebraska relief location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp relief location map.png
Red pog.svg
Location Sioux County, Nebraska, United States
Nearest city Harrison, NE
Coordinates 42°25′18″N103°45′14″W / 42.421703°N 103.75388°W / 42.421703; -103.75388 [1]
Area3,057.87 acres (12.3748 km2) [2]
EstablishedJune 14, 1997
Visitors15,555(in 2016) [3]
Governing body National Park Service
Website Agate Fossil Beds National Monument

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument is a U.S. National Monument near Harrison, Nebraska. The main features of the monument are a valley of the Niobrara River and the fossils found on Carnegie Hill and University Hill.

Contents

The area largely consists of grass-covered plains. Plants on the site include prairie sandreed, blue grama, little bluestem and needle and thread grass, and the wildflowers lupin, spiderwort, western wallflower and sunflowers.

History

Entrance to the monument Entering Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.jpg
Entrance to the monument
Map of Agate Fossil Beds Agfo map.jpg
Map of Agate Fossil Beds

Originally the Agate Springs Ranch, a working cattle ranch, was owned by Capt. James Cook. The monument's museum collection also contains more than 500 artifacts from the Cook Collection of Plains Indians artifacts.

The national monument was authorized on June 5, 1965, but was not established until June 14, 1997. The Harold J. Cook Homestead (Bone Cabin Complex) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. [4] Agate Fossil Beds is maintained by the National Park Service. [5]

Paleontology

The site is best known for a large number of well-preserved Miocene fossils, many of which were found at dig sites on Carnegie and University Hills. Fossils from the Harrison Formation and Anderson Ranch Formation, which date to the Arikareean in the North American land mammal classification, about 20 to 16.3 million years ago, are among some of the best specimens of Miocene mammals. [6]

Species found in Agate include:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harrison, Nebraska</span> Village in Nebraska, United States

Harrison is a village in Sioux County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 239 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Sioux County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Badlands National Park</span> National park in South Dakota, United States

Badlands National Park is a national park of the United States in southwestern South Dakota. The park protects 242,756 acres of sharply eroded buttes and pinnacles, along with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. The National Park Service manages the park, with the South Unit being co-managed with the Oglala Lakota tribe.

<i>Teleoceras</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Teleoceras is an extinct genus of rhinocerotid. It lived in North America during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs during the Hemingfordian to the end of Hemphillian from around 17.5 to 4.9 million years ago. It grew up to lengths of 13 feet long.

<i>Menoceras</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Menoceras is a genus of extinct, small rhinocerotids endemic to most of southern North America and ranged as far south as Panama during the early Miocene epoch. It lived from around 30.7—19.7 Ma, existing for approximately 11 million years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Day Fossil Beds National Monument</span> National monument in Oregon, United States

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is a U.S. national monument in Wheeler and Grant counties in east-central Oregon. Located within the John Day River basin and managed by the National Park Service, the park is known for its well-preserved layers of fossil plants and mammals that lived in the region between the late Eocene, about 45 million years ago, and the late Miocene, about 5 million years ago. The monument consists of three geographically separate units: Sheep Rock, Painted Hills, and Clarno.

<i>Moropus</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Moropus is an extinct genus of large perissodactyl mammal in the chalicothere family. They were endemic to North America during the Miocene from ~20.4–13.6 Mya, existing for approximately 6.8 million years. Moropus belonged to the schizotheriine subfamily of chalicotheres, and has the best fossil record of any member of this group; numbers of individuals, including complete skeletons, have been found.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fossil Butte National Monument</span> National monument in the United States

Fossil Butte National Monument is a United States National Monument managed by the National Park Service, located 15 miles (24 km) west of Kemmerer, Wyoming, United States. It centers on an assemblage of Eocene Epoch animal and plant fossils associated with Fossil Lake—the smallest lake of the three great lakes which were then present in what are now Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The other two lakes were Lake Gosiute and Lake Uinta. Fossil Butte National Monument was established as a national monument on October 23, 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashfall Fossil Beds</span> Park in Nebraska, USA

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. Ash from a Yellowstone hotspot eruption 10-12 million years ago created these fossilized bone beds. The ash depth was up to 1 foot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument</span> Pliocene-age site near Hagerman, Idaho

Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument is a Pliocene-age site near Hagerman, Idaho. The 4,351-acre (17.61 km2) Monument is internationally significant because it protects one of the richest known fossil deposits from the Blancan North American Land Mammal Age. These fossils date from 3.07 million to at least 4 million years ago in age and represent at least 200 species. Hagerman is best known for having the largest known concentration of the fossil horse, Equus simplicidens. The fossil beds, including the historic Smithsonian Horse Quarry, were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1975 and was reclassified as a National Monument in 1988.

<i>Stenomylus</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Stenomylus is an extinct genus of miniature camelid native to North America that is known from the Oligocene and Miocene epochs. Its name is derived from the Greek στενός and μύλος.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merycoidodontoidea</span> Extinct superfamily of mammals

Merycoidodontoidea, previously known as "oreodonts" or "ruminating hogs," are an extinct superfamily of prehistoric cud-chewing artiodactyls with short faces and fang-like canine teeth. As their name implies, some of the better known forms were generally hog-like, and the group has traditionally been placed within the Suina, though some recent work suggests they may have been more closely related to camels. "Oreodont" means "mountain teeth," referring to the appearance of the molars. Most oreodonts were sheep-sized, though some genera grew to the size of cattle. They were heavy-bodied, with short four-toed hooves and comparatively long tails.

<i>Daeodon</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Daeodon is an extinct genus of entelodont even-toed ungulates that inhabited North America about 29 to 15.97 million years ago during the latest Oligocene and earliest Miocene. The type species is Daeodon shoshonensis, described by a very questionable holotype by Cope. Some authors synonymize it with Dinohyus hollandi and several other species, but due to the lack of diagnostic material, this is questionable at best.

<i>Poebrotherium</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Poebrotherium is an extinct genus of camelid, endemic to North America. They lived from the Eocene to Miocene epochs, 46.3—13.6 mya, existing for approximately 32 million years.

<i>Mesoreodon</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Mesoreodon is an extinct genus of terrestrial herbivore of the family Merycoidodontidae, subfamily Merycoidodontinae, endemic to North America during the Whitneyan stage of the Oligocene-Miocene epochs existing for approximately 12.4 million years.

<i>Merychyus</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Merychyus is an extinct genus of oreodont of the family Merycoidodontidae, endemic to North America. It lived during the Miocene, 20.4—10.3 mya, existing for approximately 10 million years. Fossils are widespread through the central and western United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleontology in Nebraska</span> Paleontological research in the U.S. state of Nebraska

Paleontology in Nebraska refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Nebraska. Nebraska is world-famous as a source of fossils. During the early Paleozoic, Nebraska was covered by a shallow sea that was probably home to creatures like brachiopods, corals, and trilobites. During the Carboniferous, a swampy system of river deltas expanded westward across the state. During the Permian period, the state continued to be mostly dry land. The Triassic and Jurassic are missing from the local rock record, but evidence suggests that during the Cretaceous the state was covered by the Western Interior Seaway, where ammonites, fish, sea turtles, and plesiosaurs swam. The coasts of this sea were home to flowers and dinosaurs. During the early Cenozoic, the sea withdrew and the state was home to mammals like camels and rhinoceros. Ice Age Nebraska was subject to glacial activity and home to creatures like the giant bear Arctodus, horses, mammoths, mastodon, shovel-tusked proboscideans, and Saber-toothed cats. Local Native Americans devised mythical explanations for fossils like attributing them to water monsters killed by their enemies, the thunderbirds. After formally trained scientists began investigating local fossils, major finds like the Agate Springs mammal bone beds occurred. The Pleistocene mammoths Mammuthus primigenius, Mammuthus columbi, and Mammuthus imperator are the Nebraska state fossils.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ogallala Formation</span> Geologic formation in the western United States

The Ogallala Formation is a Miocene to early Pliocene geologic formation in the central High Plains of the western United States and the location of the Ogallala Aquifer. In Nebraska and South Dakota it is also classified as the Ogallala Group. Notably, it records the North American Land Mammal Ages (NALMAs) Hemphillian, Clarendonian, and Barstovian. It also includes an excellent record of grass seeds and other plant seeds, which can be used for biostratigraphic dating within the formation. The Ogallala Formation outcrops of Lake Meredith National Recreation Area preserve fish fossils. Similar specimens from the same unit are found at Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument in Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Register of Historic Places listings in Sioux County, Nebraska</span>

This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Sioux County, Nebraska. It is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Sioux County, Nebraska, United States. The locations of National Register properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in an online map.

Agate is in Sioux County, Nebraska, United States. Agate is located on Nebraska Highway 29, 19 miles (31 km) south-southeast of Harrison. It is home to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.

Delotrochanter is an extinct genus of large-sized carnivoran mammals, belonging to the Amphicyonidae, that lived in the Great Plains of North America during the Oligocene to Early Miocene. This genus includes some of the largest and last surviving members of the subfamily Temnocyoninae. it furthermore possesses adaptions towards both bone-crushing and cursoriality.

References

  1. "Agate Fossil Beds National Monument". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior . Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  2. "Listing of acreage – December 31, 2011" (XLSX). Land Resource Division, National Park Service. Retrieved March 18, 2012. (National Park Service Acreage Reports)
  3. "NPS Annual Recreation Visits Report". National Park Service. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
  4. "Nebraska National Register Sites in Sioux County". Nebraska State Historical Society. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved October 18, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. "Agate Fossil Beds National Monument". U.S. National Park Service. Archived from the original on December 2, 2009. Retrieved December 16, 2009.
  6. Graham, John Paul. Agate Fossil Beds National Monument: geologic resources inventory report. OCLC   1127651017.
  7. "Mammal Fossils". Agate Fossil Beds. National Park Service. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  8. "Unexpected Treasures on Nebraska's High Plains: Agate Fossil Beds National Monument". www.nationalparkstraveler.org. Retrieved 2022-01-17.