Around Crawford, Nebraska and Fort Robinson State Park

June 24-25, 2017

We took the scenic (dirt road) route to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument and shared the road with some cows before heading into farmland for as far as the eye could see. Photos and video available.

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument

Fossils were discovered on the former Agate Springs Ranch by the owner in the late 1800s. It is thought the animals died around ever-shrinking water holes during drought 19-20 million years ago (the Toadstool fossils, in comparison, date to about 30 million years ago).

These hills host the bonebeds where fossils have been found. They are named Carnegie [Museum] and [Yale] University for the institutions that performed some of the early work.

Daeodon, a pig-like scavenger, is one of the animals whose remains have been found here.

Other animals include Moropus, a distant relative of the horse; Menoceras, a 3-foot tall rhino; Daphoenodon, a bear-dog; and Stenomylus, a tiny gazelle-camel.

We found some small fossils on our walk to the hills. The first picture shows pieces of bones and the second a tooth.

In a hill a few miles away, researchers found corkscrew-shaped trace fossils. They eventually concluded that these were fossils of burrows made by Paleocaster, a land-dwelling beaver-like animal, and named them Daemonelix (Devil’s Helix).