Did You Know You Can Still Find Fossils In The Midwest?

🦴 Unearth the hidden secrets of America’s ancient past in the heart of the Midwest – no time machine required! 🌎 #SouthDakotaNews #NebraskaNews #NationalParks

RAPID CITY, SD – When most people think of fossils, they imagine exotic locales – the red rock badlands of Mongolia, maybe, or the windswept plains of Patagonia. But did you know that some of the most exciting paleontological discoveries have been made right here in America’s heartland?

Two national park sites in particular – Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Nebraska and Badlands National Park in South Dakota – offer a fascinating glimpse into the lost worlds that once existed in the center of our country.

🦏 Ghosts of the Grasslands

Twenty million years ago, the grassy plains of Nebraska looked strikingly different. Herds of rhinoceros-like beasts called Menoceras roamed the savanna, while lithe, graceful horses no bigger than housecats grazed nearby. Barrel-bodied, hippo-like Dinohyus wallowed in the mud, and packs of fierce bear-dogs prowled in search of prey.

We know all this because of the remarkable fossil deposits at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. Here, a dried up waterhole and surrounding grasslands acted as a trap, collecting the bones of countless creatures over hundreds of years. Weathering out of the hillsides today, these petrified remains tell the story of a long-lost ecosystem.

Visitors to the park can hike trails winding among the scattered fossils and learn about the Agate springs bonebed, one of the most significant Miocene mammal sites in the world. Even a trip to the visitor center is a walk through prehistory, as the building is constructed around a fossil quarry where the skeletons of ancient beasts still protrude from the rock.

🏜️ Unearthing an Eocene Waterworld

The rugged spires and buttes of Badlands National Park also conceal an abundance of fossils, but from a chapter of history much different than the grasslands of Nebraska. Roughly 37 to 28 million years ago during the Late Eocene and Oligocene epochs, this region was a lush, jungle-like floodplain crisscrossed by winding rivers.

And what a menagerie those ancient swamps and forests contained! Saber-toothed nimravids stalked the underbrush, while sheep-like oreodonts browsed on low-hanging leaves. Tiny early primates leapt through the canopy, while crocodiles lurked in the shallows. It was a world still alien to modern eyes, yet populated by the ancestors of many familiar mammals.

The soft sediments of the ancient floodplains formed a perfect medium for preserving remains, and now the park is considered one of the world’s richest deposits of mammal fossils from its respective time period. Discovering them is as easy as walking through the park – every year rain and erosion exposes new specimens, which can be spotted by keen-eyed visitors.

To get the most out of a fossil-hunting trip to Badlands, stop by the Ben Reifel Visitor Center. Here you can see scientists carefully cleaning and studying the latest finds, and perhaps even get a glimpse of a newly discovered creature from this long-vanished environment. There’s nothing quite like watching history slowly emerge from layers of stone!

🔎 Fragments of the Past

While the thrill of finding a fossil is hard to beat, it’s important to remember the role we all play in preserving these irreplaceable relics

Collecting fossils in national parks is illegal, so if you do spot something, snap a photo and notify a ranger instead of disturbing it. With care and respect, we can ensure that the remains of America’s prehistoric bestiary will endure to captivate and educate future generations.

So the next time you find yourself road-tripping across the Midwest, consider a detour off the interstate to one of these paleontological wonderlands. After all, where else can you walk in the footsteps of saber-tooths, wander through an ancient jungle, and come face to face with creatures forgotten by time? The lost worlds of Nebraska and South Dakota are waiting to be rediscovered.