The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds, Inc.

The last of the new Visitor Center exhibits at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument have been installed. They include a diagram of a stratigraphic column showing the different types of rocks in the park, touchable samples of rock and fossil wood, and an changing board showcasing currently research at the park and partnership projects […]

Paleontology of the Upper Eocene Florissant Formation, Colorado, a Geological Society of America special paper, is now available from the GSA Bookstore. This volume collects 11 papers on research, resource management, and history at the Fossil Beds.

This year’s Geological Society of America Annual Meeting will be held in Denver October 28-31. This is one of the largest geoscience meetings and an important place to hear about new research and new trends in geoscience education, forensic science, and other related fields.
Park Paleontologist Dr. Herb Meyer will be presenting an hour-long talk about […]

Our first stop in the Garden Park Fossil Area was a view of Edward Drinker Cope’s quarries. Cope (1940-1897) was a well-known and notorious paleontologist, as much for his sometimes vicious rivalry with Othniel Charles Marsh for new dinosaur discoveries, which came to be known as the “Bone Wars.”

Towards the end of the summer, Dr. Herb Meyer took our paleontology interns, Kathy Salas and Eva Lyon, and myself on a tour of part of the Gold Belt Byway. The Gold Belt Byway is a National Scene Byway which winds through spectacular scenery and includes 21 stops of historic or scientific importance, including Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, the Cripple Creek Mining District, the rich dinosaur fossil sites of Garden Park, and an important Ordovician trace fossil site at Indian Springs Ranch.