Fossil Butte National Monument: RDP

The visitor center at Fossil Butte National Monument may be small, but it’s jam packed with AMAZING fossils, many excavated here or nearby. Fossil Lake once covered this area and the conditions existing at that time preserved fossil remains especially well. Fossil Butte National Monument is in Kemmerer in southwestern Wyoming.

The fossils were discovered in this area in the mid 1800s. One well-known collector, Lee Craig, quarried and prepared fossils for museums and private collectors from 1897 to 1937. When collectors illegally used bulldozers in fossil beds nearby, preservation became a higher priority. The conservation of this site’s unique treasures was ensured in 1972, when it was established as a national monument.

Fossil Butte fossils

This fossil was huge! It’s from the genus Borelosuchus, neither a true crocodile nor a true alligator. They could grow to a length of 16 feet.

Fish fossils

Here are some of the fish fossils on display. Twenty seven species have been found in this area.

As I mentioned in my Fishing for Fossils post, this is one of the best places in the world to find fossils of fish. Since you cannot collect fossils at the monument, we dug fossils at a commercial business just east of Fossil Butte National Monument.

I especially liked the gar fossils with their long snouts (at the top and bottom of the picture below). Ancient peoples used their diamond-shaped scales to make arrowheads and body armor.

Here’s a closer view of the Amia pattersoni fossil.

The displays are well-laid out and informative. Some were a little tricky to photograph due to lighting conditions.

You get a magnifying lens view in a couple of the tabletop displays.

Plant fossils

This cabinet displayed a wide variety of plant fossils found in the vicinity. Over 400 species of plants have been found in the Fossil Butte area.

Bird fossils

Another display showed the 30+ species of birds discovered here.

Here’s a closer view. The fossil on the left side is of a Shoreline Bird. The darker fossil on the bottom is a Land Fowl, the first bird fossil discovered at the monument.

Turtle fossils

My favorites were the turtles. The largest one, at the top, is a Soft-shell Turtle. The long-tailed one is a Baenidae Turtle.

Here’s a closer view of another one. This is a nice replica of a Hummelichelys guttata. I saw an actual fossil of this species from this area for sale for $50,000 dollars.

Reptile and mammal fossils

This display held interesting collection of reptile and mammal fossils.

The large lizard in the upper left is from the same family as monitor lizards. The smaller snake fossil on the right side, represents a member of the boa family.

Here’s a closer view of the bats. These bat species don’t exist anywhere else in the world.

Here’s a prairie dog-like Hyopsodus mammal fossil–the most complete specimen ever discovered. I liked the pose of this animal so much, I created a few drawings of what it may have looked like when alive.

Of the two horse fossils found here, one is considered to be the most complete dawn horse ever found.

More information on Fossil Butte National Monument

Additional information is on the Fossil Butte National Monument site. It includes much more detailed accounts of select fossils in their collection.

There are five trails here, ranging from 1.5 to 3 miles in length. Be sure to check weather conditions prior to hiking in this High Desert setting.

We visited Fossil Butte National Monument towards the end of our 3,500-mile “Stones & Bones” trip in 2023. We dug fossils nearby at FishDig Quarry, collected rocks at a place called The Smorgasbord, and saw petroglyphs, dinosaur fossils, and enormous carvings of stone along the way. My Metropolis of Thermopolis post links to several of the sites we visited.

Ragtag Daily Prompt (RDP) – Conservation