Death Valley National Park Fossil Hunting Guide
Image: Luca Galuzzi (Lucag) (CC BY-SA 2.5)
Look for the Middle to Late Miocene Dove Spring Formation at Red Rock Canyon State Park, which yields one of the great terrestrial, land-deposited Miocene vertebrate fossil faunas in all the western United States.
Look for the Middle to Late Miocene Dove Spring Formation at Red Rock Canyon State Park, which yields one of the great terrestrial, land-deposited Miocene vertebrate fossil faunas in all the western United States. Another site of interest is the Barstow Formation, which provides vertebrate paleontologists with one of the greatest concentrations of Miocene mammal fossils yet recovered from North America. The park also hosts a variety of other fossil sites, including the Trilobite Wilderness, which is home to 21 species of ancient plants and animals, including trilobites, an echinoderm, a coelenterate, mollusks, blue-green algae, and brachiopods. The park's fossil sites are accessible via various hiking trails and guided tours. For more information, visit the Death Valley National Park website.
