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Fossil Friends:
Before John Day Fossil Beds became a National Monument, my oldest daughter and I joined University of Oregon graduate students in search of Late Eocene/EarlyOligocene leaf imprints of the Clarno Formation. The John Day Fossil Beds are located in Wheeler and Grant counties in east-central Oregon. A catastrophic volcanic eruption in the Great Basin of the United States buried millions of mammals, birds, insects, plants, and other life forms in ash during this violent period. It was a trajic event that left a magnificent record in the rocks of Oregon, South Dakota, Nebraska, and other states. The leaf imprints of birch and metasequoia and mold of a walnut tree found at John Day and Fossil City, respectively, which I selected for view, are the plant counterparts to the Brule Formation mammal jaws I will post later as the “Beasts of the Badlands.” All of these lifeforms died within the same period of time. Among the specimens shown in the link below, which are but a fraction of the plant imprints found, is one of the leaf molds I spied behind the high school in Fossil City, Oregon, discovered after I cracked open a likely piece of shale. All of the plant fossils in this location, however, were molds, rather than the colorful imprints found at John Day. Earlier, as my daughter and I were hiking through a canyon in the soon to be designated national monument, I picked up a random piece of volcanic shale, tapped a fault line in the side of the slab and discovered two matching halves of the same birch leaf. What a find!
---- Geopick
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92652163@N06/8427695179/in/photostream/lightbox/
Before John Day Fossil Beds became a National Monument, my oldest daughter and I joined University of Oregon graduate students in search of Late Eocene/EarlyOligocene leaf imprints of the Clarno Formation. The John Day Fossil Beds are located in Wheeler and Grant counties in east-central Oregon. A catastrophic volcanic eruption in the Great Basin of the United States buried millions of mammals, birds, insects, plants, and other life forms in ash during this violent period. It was a trajic event that left a magnificent record in the rocks of Oregon, South Dakota, Nebraska, and other states. The leaf imprints of birch and metasequoia and mold of a walnut tree found at John Day and Fossil City, respectively, which I selected for view, are the plant counterparts to the Brule Formation mammal jaws I will post later as the “Beasts of the Badlands.” All of these lifeforms died within the same period of time. Among the specimens shown in the link below, which are but a fraction of the plant imprints found, is one of the leaf molds I spied behind the high school in Fossil City, Oregon, discovered after I cracked open a likely piece of shale. All of the plant fossils in this location, however, were molds, rather than the colorful imprints found at John Day. Earlier, as my daughter and I were hiking through a canyon in the soon to be designated national monument, I picked up a random piece of volcanic shale, tapped a fault line in the side of the slab and discovered two matching halves of the same birch leaf. What a find!
---- Geopick
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92652163@N06/8427695179/in/photostream/lightbox/
Last edited by geopick1 on Sun Feb 03, 2013 4:23 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Typo)
