Take virtual field trips to two classic, world-famous late Triassic (late Carnian to Norian Stage age--roughly 218 to 210 million years old) fossil localities in Nevada. First off, observe in-situ at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, in what geologists call the Upper Triassic Luning Formation, the remains of several huge ichthyosaurs--an extinct marine reptile that ruled Mesozoic Era seas for many millions of years--exposed in a fossil quarry, similar in scientific conservation style to the late Jurassic geologic age bone quarry at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah-Colorado; and then, drive outside the state park's boundaries to find pelecypods, gastropods, brachiopods and ammonites (Triassic Period types are also called ammonoids) in the very same rock strata that preserved the ichthyosaurs.

Next, head over to Coral Reef Canyon, several miles from Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, a place situated on America's public lands, where paleontology enthusiasts can collect many species of corals, sponges, echinoids (sea urchins), gastropods, pelecypods, belemnites (straight-shelled cephalopods related to modern squids) and ammonites (such Triassic forms are also called ammonoids) from the Upper Triassic Luning Formation.

Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nye County, Nevada, contains the greatest concentration of some of the largest ichthyosaurs ever found. Although it's true that a later discovery in Canada disclosed a species that actually grew somewhat bigger than the Nevada examples--recognized for many years as the largest ever recorded--the Nye County locality nevertheless remains unique in its abundant association of huge ichthyosaurs.

During late Triassic geologic times, these were enormous predatory marine reptiles that grew to 60 or more feet in length and by many estimates could have weighed in excess of 50 tons. Two-hundred and eighteen million years ago they lived in a tropical sea that covered much of present-day west-central Nevada, plus portions of Oregon, Washington, California and British Columbia, Canada, as well. The now stone skeletons at Berlin-Ichthyosaur park have been exposed by paleontologists in a quarry in Union Canyon, roughly a mile and a half southeast of the old mining camp of Berlin, now a ghost town protected in what's colloquially called a state of "arrested decay." The fossil reptile bones of the great "fish-lizards" can be observed in-place in the sedimentary rocks of the Luning Formation--an ichthyosaur graveyard, the only one of its kind in the United States.

In addition to ichthyosaurs, many other kinds of aquatic life thrived in that ancient ocean some 218 million years ago. Pelecypods, gastropods, ammonites (such Triassic types are also called ammonoids), brachiopods, and conodonts (diminutive tooth-like structures, unrelated to modern jaws, derived from an extinct lamprey eel-like hemichordate; seen only in the residues of carbonates dissolved by acetic or formic acid) can also be found in the late Triassic rocks present in Union Canyon. Most of the famed fossil-bearing section is currently included in the Nevada state park system, but happily for folks infused with paleontological enthusiasm there are not a few areas outside the Berlin-Ichthyosaur park where at last field check fossils can still be collected legally, without formal prior approval from the authorities; of course, always conduct necessary due diligence--contact officials with controlling jurisdiction (AKA, BLM or Unitied States Forest Service, for example) to determine a specific locality's present status.

The fossil-yielding region is easily reached. Take the well-posted turnoff to Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park just north of Gabbs along State Route 361. This junction lies 29 miles south of Highway 50 and 34 miles north of Highway 95. Go east roughly 20 miles or so, through classic Great Basin territory, to the intersection with the dirt road to Ione (which is around seven miles to the north). Bear to the right here (south) in the direction of Berlin ghost town, which lies just south of the junction.

This is an interesting little ghost town, part of the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park. Many of the old wooden buildings have been mildly renovated (such as they are, as it were), and footpaths throughout the site lead to instructive plaques whose writings detail life and activity in a typical Nevada silver mining camp of the late 1800s, through the early 1900s.

The original silver ore locations at Berlin were made in 1895 by a state Senator Bell, who soon sold his property to John G. Stokes of New York. In 1898, the Nevada Company, with a notorious reputation for its aggressive acquiring of mineral rights, bought out the Stokes claims. In an attempt to consolidate its regional influence, the company quickly purchased the Pioneer and Knickerbocker mills in the vicinity of Ione, moving all of the machinery to the Berlin site. What the Nevada Company intended to do was construct a state of art, brand new thirty-stamp mill to begin a systematic and, with a fair amount of luck, profitable development of the reportedly extensive ore bodies.

During the boom years roughly 250 persons lived in Berlin. They had a general store, post office, and even a stage line to other mining towns in the immediate area. Although the silver ore reserves had initially appeared worthy of exploitation, the yields turned out to be rather disappointing. In 1909, the big mill originally financed by the Nevada Company shut down. But an article that year in a newspaper at Goldfield, Nevada, asserted that there was certainly enough silver ore remaining to fuel the mill for an additional three years. Nobody seemed to believe this optimistic evaluation, though. Berlin had apparently run its course.

Then, in 1911, some investors decided that it might be worthwhile to process the low grade, spent mining tailings at Berlin--the stuff left over from the original operations. A fancy new and improved 50-stamp mill was constructed (the hulk of which towers above the road to the ichthyosaur bone bed) and the mounds of tailings went through a second pulvarization. The 50-stamper operated for three years, extracting a paltry two dollars and fifty cents to the ton of material processed. During World War II, all of the equipment in the mill was systematically hauled off, stripped, its metal evidently used in the allied effort.

Continue south along the dirt road through Berlin. To the west of the path spreads the awe-inspiring expanse of Ione Valley, a great sage-coated basin that hugs the base of the Shoshone Mountains. At a point approximately eight-tenths of a mile from the road back to Gabbs and State Route 361, the path turns east through pinyon pine and juniper-studded Union Canyon, which has been carved in the Upper Triassic Luning Formation, deposited here in the vicinity of Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park during the late Carnian through early to middle portions of the Norian Stages, about 218 to 210 million years old. Elsewhere in Nevada, the Luning Formation includes strata solely of early to middle Norian Stage geologic age--that is, around 216 to 210 million years old. The limestones and shales exposed throughout Union Canyon not only contain the world-famous ichthyosaur bone graveyard, but in addition a wealth of excellently preserved mollusks, including ammonites, pelecypods and gastropods.

Almost immediately upon turning east to Union Canyon, you will spot to the right of the road, in the distance, the impressive A-frame construction which houses the ichthyosaur skeletal quarry. At last check, the fossils are on display here on weekends only throughout about half of the year, accessible to the public for a nominal fee, from around mid March to mid November. One would do well, though, to check with the ranger station in Berlin for specific times; in other words, don't rely completely on published time schedules provided on the internet. Paleontologically informed rangers give talks at the quarry site, where the individual skeletal remains of nine huge ichthyosaurs have been excavated and left in place--all in their original burial positions--in sedimentary rocks deposited roughly 218 million years ago during the youngest phases of what stratigraphers call the Carnian Stage of the late Triassic. A typical tour usually lasts about 40 minutes and consists of a general geological, anatomical and behavorial overview of ichthyosaurs, plus a detailed explanation of all the specific kinds of skeletal elements preserved on the quarry floor--skulls, jaws, vertebrae, flippers and ribs, among others. It's a genuinely educational, inspiring and fun tour. At the quarry parking lot you can also view a 57-foot bas-relief, life-size reconstruction of a Union Canyon ichthyosaur, Nevada's state fossil, Shonisaurus popularis--a specimen that in actual life probably weighed in excess of 40 tons.

The first fossil ichthyosaur bones in Union Canyon were certainly observed by silver-gold prospectors in the 1890s. Perhaps the old-time miners really didn't fully appreciate the finds, but as the often-told story goes, folks in Berlin regularly placed them as decorations in their fireplace hearths. Some of the more ingenious individuals even used the large disc-shaped vertebrae as dinner plates; several historians, though, have dismissed out of hand this particular story, claiming that the genesis of it derives from famed professor Charles L. Camp--an ichthyosaur aficionado intimately involved in the early scientific investigations of the Union Canyon bone bonanza--who supposedly exclaimed with excitation that the creature's eyes were as large as dinner plates. Then again, nobody with definitive documentation has ever disproved the claim, either.

The pioneering scientific investigation of the ichthyosaur deposit came in 1929 when a geology professor at Stanford University, Siemon W. Muller, visited Union Canyon. He studied the exposed vertebrae specimens in the late Triassic strata and determined that they belonged to an ichthyosaur. While the find was incredibly significant, Muller decided that there was no use in attempting to excavate the fossils, at that time. First off, he concluded, they were very large--way too bulky to transport safely back to civilization from such a remote region. And second, the ichthyosaur skeletons were buried far too deep in the hard sedimentary section; he could not be certain that a quarrying operation would be successful. Indeed, he speculated such digging might actually do more harm than good. In the end, Muller returned to Stanford University without really determining the full extent of the fabulous fossil occurrence. Perhaps he was convinced that he had obeyed that golden Shakespearean rule of conduct, that "discretion is the better part of valor." To Muller's credit, it must be emphasized of course that some reports disclose that when he finally returned to Stanford from his visit to Union Canyon, he tried to drum up interest in his ichthyosaur finds.

Fortunately, more actively persistent individuals would not let the fossils rest in peace in those remote reaches of the Great Basin. An acquaintance of Professor Muller, Margaret Wheat--an avid amateur fossil hunter--visited Union Canyon in the summer of 1952. What she saw immediately impressed her: nicely preserved ichthyosaur bones still partially articulated; that is, the skeletal elements were essentially aligned in their natural anatomical relationships. She then contacted Dr. Charles L. Camp, a noted paleontologist and director of the University California Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley. The pair returned to the locality in 1953. It didn't take Dr. Camp long to determine the grand importance of the exposed ichthyosaur skeletons--that here was perhaps the greatest accumulation of the largest ichthyosaur specimens ever encountered. A major paleontological dig was definitely in order.

The scientific excavations began in 1954 under the direction of Dr. Camp and his colleague, Samuel P. Wells. Along with a select group of paleontology and geology students, the scientists carefully removed the thick, induratated limestone overburden to expose the mineralized remains. The digging was strenuous, tedious and exacting. In all seven field seasons were required to get the job completed: from 1954 through 1957, then a second session from 1963 to 1965. When the "smoke had cleared," Dr. Camp had identified at least 37 adult ichthyosaurs from the Upper Triassic Luning Formation of Union Canyon. These included three distinct species, each of which exceeded 37 feet in length. One species, Shonisauris popularis (named Nevada's state fossil, by way), was for many years the largest ichthyosaur ever discovered (a later find in Canada exceeds by somewhat the Union Canyon critter)--the ultimate predator of the late Triassic seas, a frightening giant that grew to almost 60 feet in length and weighed 40 to 50 tons.

Ichthyosaurs were exclusively marine, sea-going reptiles. They first appear in the geologic record during the middle portion of the Triassic Period, about 240 million years ago. The earliest forms grew to an average length of about three to 30 feet, the latter roughly the size and weight of a modernday killer whale. One mid-Triassic species discovered in the New Pass Range of north-central Nevada in 1868 was described scientifically by famous paleontologist Joseph Leidy as belonging to a new genus of ichthyosaur, Cymbospondylus. It had a three-foot long skull filled with sharp conical teeth, perfect adaptions for preying on a balanced diet of shellfish (ammonites, belemnites and various other cephalopods), small ichthyosaurs (such as Mixosaurus cornalianus, an undersized type that grew to only three feet), and any variety of fish around which it could clamp its vice-like jaws. Later, more advanced specimens of ichthyosaurs apparently continued these feeding patterns. In comparison with ichthyosaurs studied from the late Triassic and Jurassic Period, the tail of the early species was rather primitive; there was no bend to it, which may indicate that it possessed a limited ability to propel itself through the water. It is also interesting to note that the eye socket of the 30-foot Cymbospondylus was actually smaller than its diminutive three-foot long relative Mixosaurus cornalianus.

Ichthyosaurs reached their zenith of adaptation in the late Triassic through mid-Jurassic seas. For approximately 55 million years they were the so-called biggest fish in pond, at the very top of the marine biological food chain. While the species of the Jurassic Period were much smaller than their Triassic predecessors--they grew to a maximum length of only 12 feet--the later ichthyosaurs possessed stream-lined bodies built for speed and agility. By the close of the Jurassic, though, approximately 165 million years ago, the numbers of species had been greatly reduced. Ichthyosaurs indeed survived the Jurassic Period, but could only manage to hang on half-way through the succeeding Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era, eventually going extinct by 90 million years ago, roughly 25 million years prior to the demise of the dinosaur.

Many reasons have been advanced to account for the ichthyosaur's disappearance. Some investigators suggest that the rise of plesiosaurs and monosaurs, reigning reptilian terrors of the Cretaceous seas, contributed to their inevitable decline. Another line of thought holds that the increase in numbers of sharks hastened their demise, that these large predatory fish began to feast on the once invincible ichthyosaur, reduced in Cretaceous times to a modest-sized creature less than 12 feet long. In the end, perhaps ichthyosaurs were just too specialized to last. During their doomed Cretaceous days they subsisted primarily upon cephalopods, such as ammonites, belemnites, nautiloids and perhaps giant squid (if true, then ichthyosaurs anticipated by many millions of years the feeding habits of modern sperm whales), as well--molluscan varieties, excepting the squid, that in a paleontologically provocative coincidence began their own sure decline to disappearance in the middle Cretaceous--just as the ichthyosaurs went extinct.

It is not known for certain how the ichthyosaurs of Union Canyon came to be preserved, but investigators have developed three competing explanations of what happened here some 218 million years ago.

At present, many vertebrate paleontologists believe that all of the ichthyosaurs preserved in the late Triassic Luning Formation at Union Canyon accumulated gradually as individual deaths--that is, not catastrophically as a group of animals--in rather deep, oxygen-poor waters--perhaps the result of natural deaths, or a stray kill here and there, from anoxic sea waters or poisonous algae blooms. The scientists base their conclusions primarily on how they choose to interpret the geologic meaning behind the lithology of the sedimentary rocks within which the ichthyosaurs have been preserved--a sedimentary deposit of thin-bedded argillaceous calcium carbonates called by many geologists a "shaly limestone"--a type of rock whose deposition, they say, probably occurred in deeper waters, not in relatively shallow areas of the late Triassic sea. Other geologists interpret the evidence differently, of course, and see shallow water, even a beach deposit, where different eyes would observe an abyss.

A more recent avenue of speculation borders perhaps on the fanciful, if not outright fantastical. One imaginative, creative visitor to the fossil quarry at Union Canyon came away with the distinct impression that he could see a cephalopodic pattern in the way the ichthyosaur vertebrae were aligned in the rocks. That pattern reminded the visitor of the suction cups on the arms of an octopus. And that observation led, further, to the idea that perhaps the 37 to 60 foot-long Luning Formation ichthyosaurs were attacked by something even more terrifying in the Triassic--yes...a giant octopus (a Kraken of mythology, as it were), who grasped the passing ichthyosaurs with its monstrous tentacles: hauling the unlucky vertebrates back to his invertebrate's lair; consuming there the marine reptiles; and then curiously arranging the vertebrae in a quasi-self-portrait, reminiscent of its own suckers.

But, the original idea proposed by Dr. Charles L. Camp remains perhaps the most compelling explanation yet offered.

At that date, some 218 million years ago, present-day Union Canyon was located slightly north of the equator, near the shoreline of a warm water tropical embayment, whose original position has of course been transported by the slow, sure, inevitable laws of plate tectonics to its present place in an arid Great Basin Desert. Ichthyosaurs and other sea-going animals were able to swim in and out of this bay, returning to the open marine waters whenever they so desired.

But then something treacherous happened.

Rapidly falling tides stranded at least 37 fully grown ichthyosaurs on a lonely mudflat. No human eyes were there to witness the slow suffocation of these magnificent sea reptiles when they were unable to lift their massive 40 to 50 ton bodies off of the beach. Yet, it must have been a haunting sight. An ichthyosaur was perfectly adapted to a life exclusively in the ocean; it could not hope to operate once out of water. An identical phenomenon happens today when whales and porpoises are occasionally beached. When the tides returned, the ichthyosaur carcasses were aligned parallel with wave action near the shoreline. Scavengers plucked the reptilian flesh, helping to expose the bones to the elements. In time, only the skeletons of the great marine reptiles remained along the ooze-rich mudflat.

Over the course of geologic time, the bones were eventually covered by thousands of feet of sandstones, shales, limy muds and limestones belonging to the Upper Triassic Luning and Gabbs Formations and the Lower Jurassic Sunrise and Dunlap Formations. Minerals brought in by percolating lime-rich water slowly replaced the organic content in the skeletons. Given enough time, perhaps millions of years, the once living, breathing ichthyosaurs finally turned to stone.

The sediments that accumulated in the late Triassic through middle Jurassic seas were apparently unaffected by mountain-building processes until approximately 60 million years ago. This is when the western end of the continental plate carrying North America northward began to collide with what geologists call the Farallon Plate. Tectonic activity began on a dramatic, widespread scale. Great faults appeared across what's now west-central Nevada, thrusting the once flat-lying marine-originated muds, silts sands and carbonates thousands of feet upward. The late Triassic mudflat, with its mineralized ichthyosaur bones, became part of the Shoshone Mountains, uplifted some 7,000 feet higher than the level of the sea in which it was originally deposited. Erosion of the ichthyosaur-bearing Lining Formation began in earnest during the glacial stages of the Pleistocene Epoch two million years ago. Hundreds of feet of sedimentary rock were worn away until at last, some few thousand years ago, the ichthyosaurs came to their first light of day in 218 million years.

The fossil ichthyosaurs of Union Canyon were first officially protected in 1955 when the Nevada legislature created Ichthyosaur Paleontologic State Monument; many years later, with the inclusion of Berlin ghost town, the locality became known as "Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park." In 1966, the distinctive A-frame shelter over the main fossil quarry (called the Visitors' Quarry) was erected, an excellent and attractive means of protecting the 218 million year-old remains in the rocks. And finally, in 1975, Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park became a Registered Natural Landmark--a designation reflecting a region of "exceptional value to the citizens of the United States."

Many fossils have been recovered from the Upper Triassic Lining Formation of Union Canyon. At the Visitors' Quarry (also affectionally called the "Fossil House"), display cases contain beautiful specimens of ammonoids and pelecypods that date from the day of the ichthyosaur. Exceptionally fossiliferous rocks occur at the western end of Union Canyon, but those exposures lie within the park's boundaries; obviously, they are off-limits to unauthorized amateur paleontology enthusiasts.

As a matter of fact, the Union Canyon Luning Formation outcrops used to reign supreme as world-famous producers of several key genera of late Triassic transitional Carnian-Norian Stage ammonites, plus three kinds of nautiloid cephalopods, as well. Unfortunately, repeated intensive professional paleontological expeditions, in addition to frequent armateur hobby collecting (prior to the area's status as a state park, of course) spanning 100-plus years has reduced surface cephalopodic occurrence to virtual nonexistence. There are still plenty of other kinds of invertebrates to observe there, one must note--pelecypods and brachiopods and gastropods, primarily (with conodonts present locally). Stratigraphers allow, though, that should paleontologists conduct additional formal, structured fossil quarrying at Union Canyon, exposing more ichthyosaur skeletons in the rocks, abundant ammonites, preserved in their original layers of zonation--one key species stacked atop another in succession--could again be studied. Among the ammonites (such Triassic ceratites varieties are also referred to as ammonoids, by the way) described from the Luning Formation of Union Canyon were such important genera as Klamathites, Mojsisovicsites, Tropites, Tropiceltites, Guembelites and Discophyllites.

But do not despair. The fossiliferous Luning Formation is exposed over a rather extensive area in this part of Nevada's Great Basin terrain. While it's true that all of the principal mollusk-ichthyosaur-bearing horizons have been officially protected, representative outcroppings of fossil-yielding Luning Formation strata can still be explored outside the park's boundaries. The trick, of course, is to know precisely where those boundaries lie. And that means obtaining the most recent, up-to-date map one can find. Territory outside Berlin-Ichthyosaur Park lies within a United States National Forest, administered by the US Forest Service, where hobby collecting of reasonable amounts of common invertebrate fossil specimens has long been allowed--although that too could change without any manner of advance warning. Be sure to check with the local rangers in Berlin for the most recent fossil collecting regulations. Of course, even when investigating outside Berlin-Ichthyosaur park, all fossil vertebrate remains encountered must be left where found, unless one has secured a special use permit, a permit given solely to individuals with a minimum B.S. degree from an accredited university, whose research projects can be verified as authentic by independent investigations. Taking photographs of fossil vertebrates, when found, is not yet illegal.

Ok--so now you've completed the necessary due diligence, your proverbial homework, and you're presently ready to head out into the hills surrounding Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park to fossil prospect. Where to look? One would do well to watch for the so-called "shaley limestone member" of the Upper Triassic Luning Formation, the very same stratigraphic unit that preserved the ichthyosaur bone bed, plus enormous quantities of mollusks (ammonites-pelecypods-gastropods) and to a lesser extent brachiopods back at the Visitors' Quarry. In natural outcrop, it's a thinly bedded, dark brown to black silty limestone, sometimes visible along the hillsides as poorly to decently exposed "ribs" and ledges.

More often, though, junipers and pinyon pines have formed a dense "pygmy" forest atop the late Triassic rocks, which have been so brutally eroded that they resemble little more than an alluvial soil cover. But in reducing the strata to rubble, the powers of erosion have also released numerous fossil mollusks and occasional brachiopods once embedded in the limy matrix. Simply hike away from the dirt roads, into the pleasing pitch-scented perfume of the pines and junipers, and watch carefully for the perfect pelecypods (Septocardia types with both valves intact) and gastropods, primarily (a few ammonites and brachiopods can also be located)--all weathered out whole and intact, ready to be collected.

And keep your eye out for rattlesnakes, too! During my last visit, I had one close encounter of the viperous variety--an angered anguiform animal buzzing its tail off at my intrusion into its domain. I did not contest his territorial demands. Although I have run into two rattlesnakes during my explorations here, rest assured that the snake population is likely no denser than anywhere else in the Great Basin. It's just that I have a special ability to locate the reptiles in the bush.

For those wishing to spend a few days at Union Canyon, a clean spacious campground can be found near the fossil quarry. It is well posted and easy to locate. If a visit is made during summer, be prepared for warm temperatures, plus swarms of blood-sucking gnats. At least one of the species of insect is especially virulent, causing maddening allergic reactions that typically do not flare up until a day or so after the bite. No one brand of insect repellent seems to provide a reliable safeguard against the onslaught. Expect maximum protection for a couple of hours, at most, then you're on your own.

Two-hundred and eighteen million years ago, Union Canyon was a tropical bay situated near the equator. The warm waters supported many species of ammonites, pelecypods, gastropods, brachiopods, conodonts, and ichthyosaurs. Today, the fossilized remains of these animals can be found the Upper Triassic Luning Formation deposited in that Mesozoic sea--a vast ocean that was alive with the great fish-lizards, the ichthyosaurs, who in their day were just as graceful and as efficient predators as our modernday killer whales.

Numerous species of late Triassic-age fossils (roughly 228 to 200 million years old) have been identified from extensive accumulations of marine-originated Mesozoic Era sedimentary rocks in Nevada. The area surrounding Union Canyon, at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nye County, is certainly one of the more prolific producers--from strata geologists call the Luning Formation--a widespread rock unit that also entombed, throughout central to west-central Nevada abundant marine Triassic paleontological remains.

Yet another remarkable and productive exposure of the fossil-bearing Luning Formation can be explored in a place called Coral Reef Canyon, situated several miles from the Union Canyon ichthyosaur bone bonanza. Here, the Luning reaches an estimated stratigraphic thickness of over 6,000 feet, and it's loaded with all kinds of plentiful invertebrate fossil remains--in addition to not uncommon ichthyosaur bones, to boot.

At Coral Reef Canyon, the most consistently fossiliferous sections of the Luning Formation are certainly better exposed than anywhere else in Nevada, yielding a prolific assortment of well preserved invertebrate fossil specimens, including: foraminifers; five species of thalamid (chambered) sponges; five kinds of spongiomorphs (peculiar types that resemble both sponges and corals); brachiopods (the Luning Formation yields more species of brachiopods than any other Mesozoic Era locality in North America); gastropods; pelecypods; belemnites (straight-shelled cephalopods related to the modern squid); ammonites (the Triassic types are also called ammonoids); echinoids (sea urchins); crinoids; ostracods (a minute bivalved crustacean); and some 23 varieties of corals.

Indeed, one of the more significant scientific aspects of Coral Reef Canyon is the prominent presence of coral reefs preserved in the Upper Triassic Luning Formation--massively bedded calcium carbonate accumulations which yield innumerable remains of corals, all tangled together in their original growth positions. While few of the coelenterates are perfectly preserved, their sheer abundance in rocks of proved Triassic age--a geologic period that witnessed a precipitous decline in the numbers of coral species from the preceding Permian Period of the Paleozoic Era--commands a kind of paleontological awe. At the conclusion of the Permian Period, for example, all of the once-dominant rugose and tabulate corals went belly-up, extinct.

Based on the overwhelmingly abundant fossil material identified from Coral Reef Canyon, paleontologists have been able to date the Luning Formation exposed there with great accuracy. It was deposited during the lowermost and middle portions of the Norian Stage of the late Triassic Period, or roughly 216 to 210 million years ago. Many early investigators believed the Luning in Coral Reef Canyon included strata representing the Carnian, the oldest stage of the late Triassic. But more accurate determinations, based on suites of key species of ammonites, have pretty much constrained the age of the Luning Formation there to the younger Norian Stage.

In a bit of good fortune for geologists, paleontologists and armateur fossil seekers alike, the fossiliferous exposures at Coral Reef Canyon are accessible by conventional vehicle. This is not to suggest that the route to the site is paved--far from it. Collectors must still safely negotiate a system of well-graded dirt paths (kudos to the Nevada Department of Transportation for keeping thousands of miles of dirt roads throughout the Silver State in at least a modicum of decent shape most of the time) that are subject to periodic degradation due to washouts and windstorms that can at least temporarily deteriorate the quality of the driving surface. Too, one must not automatically assume that the Bureau of Land Management continues to allow hobby fossil collecting in Coral Reef Canyon. At last check, all was good to go--legally. Always remember to contact the local district BLM ranger to learn of any new regulations and/or restrictions.

At Coral Reef Canyon, representative fossiliferous outcrops of the Luning Formation are clearly obvious, even to casual inspection. The steep slopes throughout the area consist of interlayered reddish-brown shales and dark bluish-gray limestones, from which abundant invertebrate fossils can be secured. These sedimentary outcrops represent the oldest of three recognized members (subunits) of the Upper Triassic Luning Formation, generally referred to as simply "member one" by field geologists and stratigraphers who have mapped the region.

Member one is on the order of 2,700 feet thick and is, happily for the student of paleontology, best exposed here in the neighborhood of Coral Reef Canyon. It also happens to be--by far--the most fossiliferous of the three known subunits in the Luning Formation.

Member two on the other hand is a monotonous sequence of barren shales, sandstones and conglomerates that can be observed in bold outcrop above the predominantly carbonate accumulations of the older member one. The youngest sequence in the Luning, member three, is roughly 1,600 feet of pure limestones and dolomites (magnesium carbonate) from whose oldest exposures (those lowest in the stratigraphic section) most of the ammonites identified from the Coral Reef Canyon complex have been collected.

Member one, within which almost all of the abundant fossil specimens occur throughout Coral Reef Canyon, is easily recognized from afar due to its distinctive mix of brownish shales (often containing abundant gypsum; occasional slabs of rock reminiscent of petrified wood are from time to time encountered in these shales, yet no such fossil plant material has been formally documented from Coral Reef Canyon) and thick "rib-like" protrusions of dark blue to gray limestone. Most collectors quickly discover that only those massive reefs of limestones yield significant concentrations of fossil material; the shales provide far fewer finds.

And what a cache of interred invertebrate remains the limestones have preserved. Almost two dozen species of corals are available, many in their original reef form of 215 million years ago. Also seen in the rocks here are: several interesting species of brachiopods, including Spondylospira lewesensis, Plectoconcha aequiplicata and Zugmayerella uncinata; thick-shelled oysters, plus other profuse and diverse pelecypods; belemnites; echinoids; sponges (often identified by their hollow central cavity when seen in cross-section); ammonites; and even disarticulated ichthyosaur skeletal elements (of course, without a special use permit issued by the Bureau of Land Management, one must leave the bones alone...).

It should be noted of course that the vast majority of the fossil material observed in the rocks is fragmental. The corals, for example, while generally abundant at many Luning outcrops, are seldom if ever preserved as a complete colony; they are instead found weathered out the limestones as modest-sized chunks up to a few inches in diameter. When observed in situ the coral colonies often attain impressive dimensions, sometimes several feet across, though such wonderfully attractive specimens are in practical experience impossible to remove from the densely solidified matrix without the use of hard-rock mining techniques--sledge hammer, crow-bar and Superman's back. The best preserved remains from member one of the Luning Formation include: many weathered-free, complete spiriferid and terebratulid brachiopods; Septocardia-type pelecypods with both valves preserved intact; large and small oyster-like pelecypods; echinoids (sea urchins--they are prized, but uncommon specimens); belemnites; sponge-chunks; coral chunks; and ammonites (also not overly plentiful, but usually pretty well preserved when found).

Coral Reef Canyon attracts many fossil specialists from all across America. It is truly one of the great marine late Triassic fossil localities in North America--and for the astounding diversity of specimens available to study it indeed may have no equal. A serious collector could spend several consecutive field seasons in the Coral Reef Canyon district and still not run out of new outcrops to explore.

As a matter of fact--several professional paleontologists have done just that, conducted extended collecting expeditions to the area. One of the earliest investigators was a paleontologist with a major university on the US West coast. In his own words, the scientist later wrote that he had spent "several seasons' work on the Triassic rocks," focusing his attention on the profusion of corals in Coral Reef Canyon. He was the first to recognize in the canyon species of Triassic reef-building corals then known only from the Alpine region of Europe.

Back in his laboratory, the paleontologist eventually identified over a dozen species of corals from the Upper Triassic Luning Formation (the list has since grown to some 23 species, and counting), including such diagnostic types as Montivaultia noria, M. marmorea, Thecosomilia venstrata, T. delicatula, Isastra parval, I. profunda, Latimacandra norica, Confusatraea borealis, Thanmastraea recitalmellosa, T. norica, T. borealis, Stephanocoenia juvavica and Stroatomorpha california. All are of course hexacorals (the colonial creature constructed its individual homes, called polyps, based on a six-fold symmetry), the kind of coelenterates that supplanted, replaced the rugose and tabulate corals, which went extinct at the close of Paleozoic Era.

As you travel farther up Coral Reef Canyon, the productive lower member of the Luning Formation is well exposed--its distinctive rib-like coral-sponge and pelecypod reefs eventually grading into the younger barren member two, whose shaly-terrigenous constituents appear from a distance almost indistinguishable from the youngest phases of member one. Many a field geologist has been tricked by the lithologic mischief, but the absence of limestones in the exclusively clastic section of member two should prevent any long-term difficulties in distinguishing the two major rock units.

Once beyond a major branching of trails, the main road through Coral Reef Canyon begins to slice directly through the fossiliferous lower member of the Luning Formation. For the next mile and a half to two miles, productive limestone beds can be found along both side of the road, many of them yielding vast quantities of oyster-like pelecypods and tangled, reef-building corals and sponges. The more eroded rubble-strewn slopes of carbonates frequently contain weathered-free brachiopods, pelecypods, belemnites, echinoids, sponge chunks, coral chunks and occasional ichthyosaur bone fragments. Such easily recovered specimens are not abundant, by any means, when compared with the profusion of fragmented remains in the bedrock matrix, but they often hide in small localized pockets amid the jagged debris brought down from the outcrops above.

Based on the remarkable faunal diversity displayed in the Luning Formation, there can be little doubt that deposition of the fossiliferous sections occurred in shallow tropical sea waters. The abundance of corals and sponges alone suggests this much. Today, such reef-building corals are found only in the tropical latitudes, in relatively shallow marine waters. That their late Triassic relatives also preferred similar--if not identical--conditions seems reasonable enough to assume. The oyster-like pelecypods, which developed their own reef accumulations in the lower member of the Luning Formation, also testify to deposition in warm shallow waters; modern analogs of such mollusks regularly inhabit coastal waters close to the shoreline.

Coral Reef Canyon certainly deserves its exalted reputation among students of paleontology. It is a region rich in fossils from many of the major groups of invertebrate animals. Some collectors regard the locality so highly that with dedicated regularity they return time and again, eager to find out what the previous winter's erosive power has pried free from the rocks. Yet, the quantity and quality of the fossil remains never seems to diminish. Coral Reef Canyon continues to amaze and delight visitors with its 215 million year-old treasures in the rocks. Here lies preserved a coral reef community from the tropical waters of the late Triassic age in the middle of the arid Great Basin Desert. There may not be a more curious contrast in environments imaginable.

Click on the images for larger pictures. I imaged both ammonites (such Triassic forms are also called ammonoids) from plates in a public domain document; photographs from such a public domain source can be used without prior approval.

Left to right: (1) Tropites nevadensus, Upper Triassic Luning Formation, Union Canyon, Nevada; (2) Guembelites philostrati, Upper Triassic Luning Formation, Union Canyon, Nevada.

• The Acoustic Guitar Solitaire Of Inyo: A Cyber-CD: I play 30 covers of some of my favorite songs on an acoustic 6-string guitar; it's all free music.
• Beyond The Timberline--A Cyber-CD: I play 32 selections comprised of covers and original tunes on acoustic 6 and 12-string guitars; it's all free music.
• The Distant Path--A Cyber-CD: I play 32 acoustic guitar covers and original compositions; it's all free music.
• Inyo And Folks--A Musical History--A Quintuple Cyber-CD: My parents and I play 203 selections; it's all free music.
• Acoustic Stratigraphy--A Cyber-CD: I play 34 covers of some of my favorite songs on 6 and 12-string guitars; it's all free music.
• Back To Badwater--A Cyber-CD: I play 32 covers and original compositions on 6 and 12-string guitars; it's all free music.
• All Inyo All The Time: All six of my cyber-cds in one place (includes a quintuple cyber-cd box set); links to all of my solo acoustic guitar playing, in addition to selections my parents and I recorded during the Golden Age of our spontaneous, impromptu recording sessions. Includes an option to stream all 364 selectons; thirteen hours, seventeen minues and forty seconds of music (it's all free music).
• It's A Happening Thing--Music From The Year 1967: All songs that charted US Billboard Hot 100 (#1 to #100) and Bubbling Under (records that charted in positions #101 to #135) in 1967.

• Fossils In Death Valley National Park: A site dedicated to the paleontology, geology, and natural wonders of Death Valley National Park; lots of on-site photographs of scenic localities within the park; images of fossils specimens; links to many virtual field trips of fossil-bearing interest.
• Fossil Insects And Vertebrates On The Mojave Desert, California: Journey to two world-famous fossil sites in the middle Miocene Barstow Formation: one locality yields upwards of 50 species of fully three-dimensional, silicified freshwater insects, arachnids, and crustaceans that can be dissolved free and intact from calcareous concretions; a second Barstow Formation district provides vertebrate paleontologists with one of the greatest concentrations of Miocene mammal fossils yet recovered from North America--it's the type locality for the Bartovian State of the Miocene Epoch, 15.9 to 12.5 million years ago, with which all geologically time-equivalent rocks in North American are compared.
• A Visit To Fossil Valley, Great Basin Desert, Nevada: Take a virtual field trip to a Nevada locality that yields the most complete, diverse, fossil assemblage of terrestrial Miocene plants and animals known from North America--and perhaps the world, as well. Yields insects, leaves, seeds, conifer needles and twigs, flowering structures, pollens, petrified wood, diatoms, algal bodies, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, bird feathers, fish, gastropods, pelecypods (bivalves), and ostracods.
• Fossils At Red Rock Canyon State Park, California: Visit wildly colorful Red Rock Canyon State Park on California's northern Mojave Desert, approximately 130 miles north of Los Angeles--scene of innumerable Hollywood film productions and commercials over the years--where the Middle to Late Miocene (13 to 7 million years old) Dove Spring Formation, along with a classic deposit of petrified woods, yields one of the great terrestrial, land-deposited Miocene vertebrate fossil faunas in all the western United States.
• Cambrian And Ordovician Fossils At Extinction Canyon, Nevada: Visit a site in Nevada's Great Basin Desert that yields locally common whole and mostly complete early Cambrian trilobites, in addition to other extinct organisms such as graptolites (early hemichordate), salterella (small conical critter placed in the phylum Agmata), Lidaconus (diminutive tusk-shaped shell of unestablished zoological affinity), Girvanella (photosynthesizing cyanobacterial algae), and Caryocaris (a bivalved crustacean).
• Late Pennsylvanian Fossils In Kansas: Travel to the midwestern plains to discover the classic late Pennsylvanian fossil wealth of Kansas--abundant, supremely well-preserved associations of such invertebrate animals as brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, echinoderms, fusulinids, mollusks (gastropods, pelecypods, cephalopods, scaphopods), and sponges; one of the great places on the planet to find fossils some 307 to 299 million years old.
• Fossil Plants Of The Ione Basin, California: Head to Amador County in the western foothills of California's Sierra Nevada to explore the fossil leaf-bearing Middle Eocene Ione Formation of the Ione Basin. This is a completely undescribed fossil flora from a geologically fascinating district that produces not only paleobotanically invaluable suites of fossil leaves, but also world-renowned commercial deposits of silica sand, high-grade kaolinite clay and the extraordinarily rare Montan Wax-rich lignites (a type of low grade coal).
• Ice Age Fossils At Santa Barbara, California--Journey to the famed So Cal coastal community of Santa Barbara (about a 100 miles north of Los Angeles) to explore one of the best marine Pleistocene invertebrate fossil-bearing areas on the west coast of the United States; that's where the middle Pleistocene Santa Barbara Formation yields nearly 400 species of pelecypod bivalve mollusks, gastropods, chitons, scaphopods, pteropods, brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, ostracods (minute bivalve crustaceans), worm tubes, and foraminifers.
• Trilobites In The Marble Mountains, Mojave Desert, California: Take a trip to the place that first inspired my life-long fascination and interest in fossils--the classic trilobite quarry in the Lower Cambrian Latham Shale, in the Marble Mountains of California's Mojave Desert. It's a special place, now included in the rather recently established Trilobite Wilderness, where some 21 species of ancient plants and animals have been found--including trilobites, an echinoderm, a coelenterate, mollusks, blue-green algae and brachiopods.
• Fossil Plants In The Neighborhood Of Reno, Nevada: Visit two famous fossil plant localities in the Great Basin Desert near Reno, Nevada--a place to find leaves, seeds, needles, foilage, and cones in the middle Miocene Pyramid and Chloropagus Formations, 15.6 and 14.8 to 13.3 million years old, respectively.
• Dinosaur-Age Fossil Leaves At Del Puerto Creek, California: Journey to the western edge of California's Great Central Valley to explore a classic fossil leaf locality in an upper Cretaceous section of the upper Cretaceous to Paleocene Moreno Formation; the plants you find there lived during the day of the dinosaur.
• Early Cambrian Fossils Of Westgard Pass, California: Visit the Westgard Pass area, a world-renowned geologic wonderland several miles east of Big Pine, California, in the neighboring White-Inyo Mountains, to examine one of the best places in the world to find archaeocyathids--an enigmatic invertebrate animal that went extinct some 510 million years ago, never surviving past the early Cambrian; also present there in rocks over a half billion years old are locally common trilobites, plus annelid and arthropod trails, and early echinoderms.
• Plant Fossils At The La Porte Hydraulic Gold Mine, California: Journey to a long-abandoned hydraulic gold mine in the neighborhood of La Porte, northern Sierra Nevada, California, to explore the upper Eocene La Porte Tuff, which yields some 43 species of Cenozoic plants, mainly a bounty of beautifully preserved leaves 34.2 million years old.
• A Visit To Ammonite Canyon, Nevada: Explore one of the best-exposed, most complete fossiliferous marine late Triassic through early Jurassic geologic sections in the world--a place where the important end-time Triassic mass extinction has been preserved in the paleontological record. Lots of key species of ammonites, brachiopods, corals, gastropods and pelecypods.
• Fossil Plants At The Chalk Bluff Hydraulic Gold Mine, California: Take a field trip to the Chalk Bluff hydraulic gold mine, western foothills of California's Sierra Nevada, for leaves, seeds, flowering structures, and petrified wood from some 70 species of middle Eocene plants.
• Field Trip To The Alexander Hills Fossil District, Mojave Desert, California: Visit a locality outside the southern sector of Death Valley National Park to explore a paleontological wonderland that produces: Precambrian stromatolites over a billion years old; early skeletonized eukaryotic cells of testate amoebae over three-quarters of billion years old; early Cambrian trilobites, archaeocyathids, annelid trails, arthropod tracks, and echinoderm material; Pliocene-Pleistocene vertebrate and invertebrate faunas; and late middle Miocene camel tracks, petrified palm wood, petrified dicotlyedon wood, and permineralized grasses.
• Fossils In Millard County, Utah: Take virtual field trips to two world-famous fossil localities in Millard County, Utah--Wheeler Amphitheater in the trilobite-bearing middle Cambrian Wheeler Shale; and Fossil Mountain in the brachiopod-ostracod-gastropod-echinoderm-trilobite rich lower Ordovician Pogonip Group.
• Fossil Plants, Insects And Frogs In The Vicinity Of Virginia City, Nevada: Journey to a western Nevada badlands district near Virginia City and the Comstock Lode to discover a bonanza of paleontology in the late middle Miocene Coal Valley Formation.
• Paleozoic Era Fossils At Mazourka Canyon, Inyo County, California: Visit a productive Paleozoic Era fossil-bearing area near Independence, California--along the east side of California's Owens Valley, with the great Sierra Nevada as a dramatic backdrop--a paleontologically fascinating place that yields a great assortment of invertebrate animals.
• Late Triassic Ichthyosaur And Invertebrate Fossils In Nevada: Journey to two classic, world-famous fossil localities in the Upper Triassic Luning Formation of Nevada--Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park and Coral Reef Canyon. At Berlin-Ichthyosaur, observe in-situ the remains of several gigantic ichthyosaur skeletons preserved in a fossil quarry; then head out into the hills, outside the state park, to find plentiful pelecypods, gastropods, brachiopods and ammonoids. At Coral Reef Canyon, find an amazing abundance of corals, sponges, brachiopods, echinoids (sea urchins), pelecypods, gastropods, belemnites and ammonoids.
• Fossils From The Kettleman Hills, California: Visit one of California's premiere Pliocene-age (approximately 4.5 to 2.0 million years old) fossil localities--the Kettleman Hills, which lie along the western edge of California's Great Central Valley northwest of Bakersfield. This is where innumerable sand dollars, pectens, oysters, gastropods, "bulbous fish growths" and pelecypods occur in the Etchegoin, San Joaquin and Tulare Formations.
• Field Trip To The Kettleman Hills Fossil District, California: Take a virtual field trip to a classic site on the western side of California's Great Central Valley, roughly 80 miles northwest of Bakersfield, where several Pliocene-age (roughly 4.5 to 2 million years old) geologic rock formations yield a wealth of diverse, abundant fossil material--sand dollars, scallop shells, oysters, gastropods and "bulbous fish growths" (fossil bony tumors--found nowhere else, save the Kettleman Hills), among many other paleontological remains.
• A Visit To The Sharktooth Hill Bone Bed, Southern California: Travel to the dusty hills near Bakersfield, California, along the eastern side of the Great Central Valley in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, to explore the world-famous Sharktooth Hill Bone Bed, a Middle Miocene marine deposit some 16 to 15 million years old that yields over a hundred species of sharks, rays, bony fishes, and sea mammals from a geologic rock formation called the Round Mountain Silt Member of the Temblor Formation; this is the most prolific marine, vertebrate fossil-bearing Middle Miocene deposit in the world.
• High Sierra Nevada Fossil Plants, Alpine County, California: Visit a remote fossil leaf and petrified wood locality in the Sierra Nevada, at an altitude over 8,600 feet, slightly above the local timberline, to find 7 million year-old specimens of cypress, Douglas-fir, White fir, evergreen live oak, and giant sequoia, among others.
• In Search Of Fossils In The Tin Mountain Limestone, California: Journey to the Death Valley area of Inyo County, California, to explore the highly fossiliferous Lower Mississippian Tin Mountain Limestone; visit three localities that provide easy access to a roughly 358 million year-old calcium carbate accumulation that contains well preserved corals, brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, and ostracods--among other major groups of invertebrate animals.
• Middle Triassic Ammonoids From Nevada: Travel to a world-famous fossil locality in the Great Basin Desert of Nevada, a specific place that yields some 41 species of ammonoids, in addition to five species of pelecypods and four varieties of belemnites from the Middle Triassic Prida Formation, which is roughly 235 million years old; many paleontologists consider this specific site the single best Middle Triassic, late Anisian Stage ammonoid locality in the world. All told, the Prida Formation yields 68 species of ammonoids spanning the entire Middle Triassic age, or roughly 241 to 227 million years ago.
• Late Miocene Fossil Leaves At Verdi, Washoe County, Nevada: Explore a fascinating fossil leaf locality not far from Reno, Nevada; find 18 species of plants that prove that 5.8 million years ago this part of the western Great Basin Desert would have resembled, floristically, California's lush green Gold Country, from Placerville south to Jackson.
• Fossils Along The Loneliest Road In America: Investigate the extraordinary fossil wealth along some 230 miles of The Loneliest Road In America--US Highway 50 from the vicinity of Eureka, Nevada, to Delta in Millard County, Utah. Includes on-site images and photographs of representative fossils (with detailed explanatory text captions) from every geologic rock deposit I have personally explored in the neighborhood of that stretch of Great Basin asphalt. The paleontologic material ranges in geologic age from the middle Eocene (about 48 million years ago) to middle Cambrian (approximately 505 million years old).
• Fossil Bones In The Coso Range, Inyo County, California: Visit the Coso Range Wilderness, west of Death Valley National Park at the southern end of California's Owens Valley, where vertebrate fossils some 4.8 to 3.0 million years old can be observed in the Pliocene-age Coso Formation: It's a paleontologically significant place that yields many species of mammals, including the remains of Equus simplicidens, the Hagerman Horse, named for its spectacular occurrences at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument in Idaho; Equus simplicidens is considered the earliest known member of the genus Equus, which includes the modern horse and all other equids.
• Field Trip To A Vertebrate Fossil Locality In The Coso Range, California: Take a cyber-visit to the famous bone-bearing Pliocene Coso Formation, Coso Mountains, Inyo County, California; includes detailed text for the field trip, plus on-site images and photographs of vertebrate fossils.
• Fossil Plants At Aldrich Hill, Western Nevada: Take a field trip to western Nevada, in the vicinity of Yerington, to famous Aldrich Hill, where one can collect some 35 species of ancient plants--leaves, seeds and twigs--from the Middle Miocene Aldirch Station Formation, roughly 12 to 13 million years old. Find the leaves of evergreen live oak, willow, and Catalina Ironwood (which today is restricted in its natural habitat solely to the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California), among others, plus the seeds of many kinds of conifers, including spruce; expect to find the twigs of Giant Sequoias, too.
• Fossils From Pleistocene Lake Manix, California: Explore the badlands of the Manix Lake Beds on California's Mojave Desert, an Upper Pleistocene deposit that produces abundant fossil remains from the silts and sands left behind by a great fresh water lake, roughly 350,000 to 19,000 years old--the Manix Beds yield many species of fresh water mollusks (gastropods and pelecypods), skeletal elements from fish (the Tui Mojave Chub and Three-Spine Stickleback), plus roughly 50 species of mammals and birds, many of which can also be found in the incredible, world-famous La Brea Tar Pits of Los Angeles.
• Field Trip To Pleistocene Lake Manix, California: Go on a virtual field trip to the classic, fossiliferous badlands carved in the Upper Pleistocene Manix Formation, Mojave Desert, California. It's a special place that yields beaucoup fossil remains, including fresh water mollusks, fish (the Mojave Tui Chub), birds and mammals.
• Trilobites In The Nopah Range, Inyo County, California: Travel to a locality well outside the boundaries of Death Valley National Park to collect trilobites in the Lower Cambrian Pyramid Shale Member of the Carrara Formation.
• Ammonoids At Union Wash, California: Explore ammonoid-rich Union Wash near Lone Pine, California, in the shadows of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States. Union Wash is a ne plus ultra place to find Early Triassic ammonoids in California. The extinct cephalopods occur in abundance in the Lower Triassic Union Wash Formation, with the dramatic back-drop of the glacier-gouged Sierra Nevada skyline in view to the immediate west.
• A Visit To The Fossil Beds At Union Wash, Inyo County California: A virtual field trip to the fabulous ammonoid accumulations in the Lower Triassic Union Wash Formation, Inyo County, California--situated in the shadows of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States.
• Ordovician Fossils At The Great Beatty Mudmound, Nevada: Visit a classic 475-million-year-old fossil locality in the vicinity of Beatty, Nevada, only a few miles east of Death Valley National Park; here, the fossils occur in the Middle Ordovician Antelope Valley Limestone at a prominent Mudmound/Biohern. Lots of fossils can be found there, including silicified brachiopods, trilobites, nautiloids, echinoderms, bryozoans, ostracodes and conodonts.
• Paleobotanical Field Trip To The Sailor Flat Hydraulic Gold Mine, California: Journey on a day of paleobotanical discovery with the FarWest Science Foundation to the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada--to famous Sailor Flat, an abandoned hydraulic gold mine of the mid to late 1800s, where members of the foundation collect fossil leaves from the "chocolate" shales of the Middle Eocene auriferous gravels; all significant specimens go to the archival paleobotanical collections at the University California Museum Of Paleontology in Berkeley.
• Early Cambrian Fossils In Western Nevada: Explore a 518-million-year-old fossil locality several miles north of Death Valley National Park, in Esmeralda County, Nevada, where the Lower Cambrian Harkless Formation yields the largest single assemblage of Early Cambrian trilobites yet described from a specific fossil locality in North America; the locality also yields archeocyathids (an extinct sponge), plus salterella (the "ice-cream cone fossil"--an extinct conical animal placed into its own unique phylum, called Agmata), brachiopods and invertebrate tracks and trails.
• Fossil Leaves And Seeds In West-Central Nevada: Take a field trip to the Middlegate Hills area in west-central Nevada. It's a place where the Middle Miocene Middlegate Formation provides paleobotany enthusiasts with some 64 species of fossil plant remains, including the leaves of evergreen live oak, tanbark oak, bigleaf maple, and paper birch--plus the twigs of giant sequoias and the winged seeds from a spruce.
• Ordovician Fossils In The Toquima Range, Nevada: Explore the Toquima Range in central Nevada--a locality that yields abundant graptolites in the Lower to Middle Ordovician Vinini Formation, plus a diverse fauna of brachiopods, sponges, bryozoans, echinoderms and ostracodes from the Middle Ordovician Antelope Valley Limestone.
• Fossil Plants In The Dead Camel Range, Nevada: Visit a remote site in the vicinity of Fallon, Nevada, where the Middle Miocene Desert Peak Formation provides paleobotany enthusiasts with 22 species of nicely preserved leaves from a variety of deciduous trees and evergreen live oaks, in addition to samaras (winged seeds), needles and twigs from several types of conifers.
• Early Triassic Ammonoid Fossils In Nevada: Visit the two remote localities in Nevada that yield abundant, well-preserved ammonoids in the Lower Triassic Thaynes Formation, some 240 million years old--one of the sites just happens to be the single finest Early Triassic ammonoid locality in North America.
• Fossil Plants At Buffalo Canyon, Nevada: Explore the wilds of west-central Nevada, a number of miles from Fallon, where the Middle Miocene Buffalo Canyon Formation yields to seekers of paleontology some 54 species of deciduous and coniferous varieties of 15-million-year-old leaves, seeds and twigs from such varieties as spruce, fir, pine, ash, maple, zelkova, willow and evergreen live oak
• High Inyo Mountains Fossils, California: Take a ride to the crest of the High Inyo Mountains to find abundant ammonoids and pelecypods--plus, some shark teeth and terrestrial plants in the Upper Mississippian Chainman Shale, roughly 325 million years old.
• Field Trip To The Copper Basin Fossil Flora, Nevada: Visit a remote region in Nevada, where the Late Eocene Dead Horse Tuff provides seekers of paleobotany with some 42 species of ancient plants, roughly 39 to 40 million years old, including the leaves of alder, tanbark oak, Oregon grape and sassafras.
• Fossil Plants And Insects At Bull Run, Nevada: Head into the deep backcountry of Nevada to collect fossils from the famous Late Eocene Chicken Creek Formation, which yields, in addition to abundant fossil fly larvae, a paleobotanically wonderful association of winged seeds and fascicles (bundles of needles) from many species of conifers, including fir, pine, spruce, larch, hemlock and cypress. The plants are some 37 million old and represent an essentially pure montane conifer forest, one of the very few such fossil occurrences in the Tertiary Period of the United States.
• A Visit To The Early Cambrian Waucoba Spring Geologic Section, California: Journey to the northwestern sector of Death Valley National Park to explore the classic, world-famous Waucoba Spring Early Cambrian geologic section, first described by the pioneering paleontologist C.D. Walcott in the late 1800s; surprisingly well preserved 540-510 million-year-old remains of trilobites, invertebrate tracks and trails, Girvanella algal oncolites and archeocyathids (an extinct variety of sponge) can be observed in situ.
• Petrified Wood From The Shinarump Conglomerate: An image of a chunk of petrified wood I collected from the Upper Triassic Shinarump Conglomerate, outside of Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado.
• Fossil Giant Sequoia Foliage From Nevada: Images of the youngest fossil foliage from a giant sequoia ever discovered in the geologic record--the specimen is Lower Pliocene in geologic age, around 5 million years old.
• Some Favorite Fossil Brachiopods Of Mine: Images of several fossil brachiopods I have collected over the years from Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic-age rocks.
• In Search Of Vanished Ages--Field Trips To Fossil Localities In California, Nevada, And Utah--My fossils-related field trips in full print book form (pdf). 98,703 words (equivalent to a medium-size hard cover work of non-fiction); 250 printed pages (equivalent to about 380 pages in hard cover book form); 27 chapters; 30 individual field trips to places of paleontological interest; 60 photographs--representative on-site images and pictures of fossils from each locality visited.

• United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 264-J: Fossils Birds From Manix Lake California, by Hildegarde Howard.
• United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1928: Stratigraphy of the Lower And Middle(?) Triassic Union Wash Formation, East-Central California by Paul Stone, Calvin H. Stevens, and Michael J. Orchard.
• United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 483-F: An Unusual Lower Cambrian Trilobite Fauna From Nevada by Allison R. Palmer.
• United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1527: Age Of The Coso Formation, Inyo County, California by C. R. Bacon, D. M. Giovannetti, W. A. Duffield, W. A. Dalrymple and R. E. Drake.