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Fossil Butte National Monument

View on map:41.836504°N 110.770093°W

Comments

The region 48 million years ago was subtropical.  A fresh-water lake once sat where Fossil Butte is today full of crocodiles and at minimum 26 species of fish.  The surrounding region was full of insects and lush vegetation.  It is all preserved in the sediments here in the Green River Formation - some of the most superb fossil specimens ever collected.  The top 300 feet of Fossil Butte as seen here from the visitor center is the fossil pay dirt (but please note that it is illegal to collect fossils in a National Monument).   

Description


Fossil Butte National Monument

Fossil Butte National Monument is a unit of the National Park Service located 15 miles west of Kemmerer, Wyoming, USA. It centers on an extraordinary assemblage of Eocene Epoch (56 to 34 million years ago) animal and plant fossils associated with the smallest lake — Fossil Lake — of the three great lakes which were present at that time in what are now Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The other two were lakes were Lake Gosiute and Lake Uinta. Fossil Butte National Monument was established as a national monument on October 23, 1972.

References

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