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Fossil "Pompeii" of Prehistoric Animals Named U.S. Landmark
National Geographic News ^ | 5/12/2006 | Stefan Lovgren

Posted on 05/16/2006 1:19:43 PM PDT by texas_mrs

The U.S. Department of Interior has designated Nebraska's Ashfall Fossil Beds as a national natural landmark, the first such landmark to be designated in almost two decades.

The site, near the town of Neligh (see Nebraska map), is home to hundreds of skeletons of extinct rhinos, camels, three-toed horses, and other vertebrates that were killed and buried by ash from a huge volcanic eruption some 12 million years ago.

It is the only place on Earth where large numbers of fossil mammals have been found as whole, three-dimensionally preserved skeletons.

"Ashfall has tremendous value for science and education and great inspirational value," said Margi Brooks, the National Natural Landmark (NNL) Program manager, who is based in Tucson, Arizona.

"It clearly qualifies as a natural landmark."

The Ashfall Fossil Beds were uncovered in the early 1970s by Mike Voorhies, the current curator of paleontology at the University of Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln.

In 1971 he found a skull of a rhino calf protruding from an eroding ravine. The skull turned out to be part of a complete skeleton embedded in volcanic ash.

Voorhies led excavations of the site in 1978 and 1979, supported by a grant from the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)

About 12 million years ago, a volcano in modern-day Idaho spread a blanket of ash over large parts of what is now the midwestern United States. A layer of this powdered glass one or two feet (one- to two-thirds of a meter) thick covered the grasslands of northeastern Nebraska.

Most of the animals living in the area survived the actual ashfall, but as they continued to graze on the ash-covered grasses, their lungs began to fill with the deadly particles.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Nebraska
KEYWORDS: fossil; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; neligh; pompeii; prehistoric

Paleontologists work among some of the hundreds of fossilized skeletons at Nebraska's Ashfall Fossil Beds. The site was recently declared a national natural landmark, the first such landmark to be designated in almost two decades.
1 posted on 05/16/2006 1:19:46 PM PDT by texas_mrs
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To: texas_mrs

Interesting. Thanks for the post.


2 posted on 05/16/2006 1:21:29 PM PDT by TXBubba ( Democrats: If they don't abort you then they will tax you to death.)
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To: SunkenCiv

*ping*


3 posted on 05/16/2006 1:25:19 PM PDT by Salamander (Cursed With Second Sight)
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: texas_mrs

Global warming. Bush's fault.
(Somebody had to say it.)


5 posted on 05/16/2006 2:02:54 PM PDT by Buck W. (If you push something hard enough, it will fall over.)
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To: texas_mrs

This site is hard to get to, but if you're ever in NE Nebraska, it's well worth a visit. In the 'rhino barn' alone here are literally dozens of perfectly preserved skeletons, including pregnant rhinos with babies inside them, and nursing rhinos with their offsprting close by. Stunning.


6 posted on 05/16/2006 2:04:39 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor
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To: texas_mrs
Many of these animals are subtropical or tropical, which shows how different our environment was in this area 12 million years ago," said Rick Otto, the superintendent of the park.

Gasp ! It seems that there's been global COOLING since then !

7 posted on 05/16/2006 2:23:50 PM PDT by Red Boots
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To: texas_mrs
I visited this site two years ago and it is amazing the level of preservation from the ash. While you are in the area you can also see a similar find of wooly mammoths in Hot Springs, South Dakota. LINK
8 posted on 05/16/2006 2:51:39 PM PDT by The Great RJ ("Mir wölle bleiwen wat mir sin" or "We want to remain what we are." ..Luxembourg motto)
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To: texas_mrs; blam

Thanks for the post.

Ping


9 posted on 05/16/2006 2:55:10 PM PDT by wizr (wiz - Sound on prairie, made by buffalo.)
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To: sionnsar

Ping


10 posted on 05/16/2006 2:58:55 PM PDT by wizr (wiz - Sound on prairie, made by buffalo.)
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To: texas_mrs

Countdown to the post of Helen Thomas' picture 3...2....1


11 posted on 05/16/2006 3:11:52 PM PDT by Lekker 1 (("Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau" - I. Fisher, Yale Econ Prof, 1929))
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To: wizr; texas_mrs

12 posted on 05/16/2006 4:41:23 PM PDT by blam
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To: Regicide

ROFL!


13 posted on 05/16/2006 7:03:20 PM PDT by Salamander (Cursed With Second Sight)
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To: Salamander; blam; FairOpinion; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; ...
Thanks Salamander.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

14 posted on 05/16/2006 10:50:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Buck W.
Global warming. Bush's fault.
(Somebody had to say it.)

True, but I note people are studiously avoiding mentioning that these are pro-illegal immigrant rinos...

15 posted on 05/17/2006 6:08:28 AM PDT by null and void (Islam wasn't hijacked on 9/11. It was exposed.)
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To: 75thOVI; AndrewC; Avoiding_Sulla; BenLurkin; Berosus; CGVet58; chilepepper; ckilmer; demlosers; ...
Catastrophism

16 posted on 08/27/2006 8:14:22 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (updated my FR profile on Thursday, August 10, 2006. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv

Looks like the La Brea Tar Pits now have some competition.


17 posted on 08/28/2006 2:32:02 AM PDT by Berosus ("There is no beauty like Jerusalem, no wealth like Rome, no depravity like Arabia."--the Talmud)
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To: Berosus

Both of 'em need some PR guy to dream up new names, though. ;')


18 posted on 08/28/2006 9:42:09 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (updated my FR profile on Thursday, August 10, 2006. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Berosus

As does Dinosaur State Park in Connecticut (although there's mostly just footprints there).


19 posted on 08/28/2006 9:44:15 AM PDT by LIConFem (Just opened a new seafood restaurant in Great Britain, called "Squid Pro Quid")
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