The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds, Inc.

Benson’s talk, titled “Exceptional Diversity of Late Eocene Freshwater Diatoms from the Florissant Formation, Teller County, Colorado,” summarized some of her work to date on the previously unstudied fossil diatoms of the Florissant Formation.

Diatoms are microscopic, single-celled, golden-brown algae with hard silica shells (frustules). These shells are extremely tiny, only 10-100 microns (1 micron = 1/1000 millimeter). Scientists use the shapes, sizes, and ornamentation of the frustules to identify diatom species. Diatoms can be divided into two major groups according to shape, centric (round) and pennate (elongated).

Although marine diatoms are known as far back as the Jurassic Period (200 million years ago), confirmed reports of freshwater diatoms in North America are much more recent. The diatoms of the Florissant Formation represent one of the earliest occurrences of freshwater diatoms in North America.

Fossil diatoms are most abundant in thin “paper shale” layers within the Florissant Formation, such as those found at the Scudder Pit Interpretive Site. Photo Credit: Melissa Barton

Benson’s research, which is partially funded by visitor fees from the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (formerly Fee Demo Program), is currently focused on identifying the fossil diatoms and comparing the Florissant assemblage to other Eocene assemblages from western North America. Additional funding sources include the Paleontological Society, Walker Van Riper Fund at UCM, Evolving Earth Foundation, Colorado Scientific Society, Colorado Mountain Club, and the Sam Van Landingham Fellowship at the California Academy of Sciences.

In order to examine the diatoms with a light microscope, Benson must break up the matrix of the rock, make a slurry, dry the slurry on cover slips, and then mount the slips on slides. However, many important identifying characteristics cannot be seen without the higher-powered scanning electron microscope (SEM). Taking a good micrograph is difficult and time-consuming.

These SEM micrographs of modern diatoms show the whole frustule of a centric diatom (A), two whole pennate diatom frustules (B), a single valve of a centric diatom (C), and another centric diatom frustule (D). Relatives of some of these diatoms are known from the fossil record. Photo Credit: Mary Ann Tiffany, San Diego State University

The Florissant diatoms are extremely diverse compared to other Eocene sites, Benson has found. Many of the Florissant genera have not been recorded in other Eocene or earlier deposits. Benson hopes to find and describe new species within these genera.

“Although the diatoms are relatively well-preserved, they are not as well-preserved [as the plant and insect fossils of Florissant],” Benson said at the talk, “so their claim to fame will be their diversity, not their preservation.”

Since diatom frustules can dissolve in alkaline water, they are not always preserved in lake deposits, even if diatoms lived in the lake. Diatomaceous sediments can also be replaced by chert if additional silica is introduced after burial.

Florissant presents an exceptional opportunity for scientists like Benson to study the evolutionary history of diatoms and what diatoms can tell us about the ecology and chemistry of ancient lakes.

-Melissa Barton

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Mary Ellen Benson and Dr. Dena M. Smith for assistance in writing this article.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is beginning a long term oral history project. The project will use nearly $800.00 of professional audio recording equipment purchased by the Friends of the Florissant Fossils Beds.

The goal of this project is to record the stories related to the different aspects of the Monument’s history, which may include Native American history, settlers and the Hornbek Homestead, the commercial fossil and tourist operations, farming and ranching, the founding of the Monument, and the first few decades of the Monument’s history.

The new equipment allows the Monument to record conversations in person or over the phone so people who live far from the Monument may be interviewed. The stories will be recorded, transcribed, and stored. They will be available to researchers and portions of them may be used on the Monument’s website or in exhibits. The Monument staff would like to thank the Friends for their support in helping us preserve the stories and history of this amazing national park area.

Jack Williams, the second superintendent of the Monument, will be the first person to be interviewed. The Monument is compiling a list of additional people involved in the park’s history to interview. If you are one of these people or know someone who should be interviewed, please contact Jeff Wolin or Shawn Frizzell at the Monument at 719-748-3253 or flfo_information@nps.gov.

-Jeff Wolin, Lead Interpretive Ranger
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Photo Credit: Melissa Barton

Lots of events for this spring and summer posted are to the calendar.

Highlights:

February 17 - “Fossils! Florissant’s Claim to Fame” Chautauqua sponsored by the Pikes Peak Historical Society

March 15 - Open House at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, with morning hike led by the Friends

April 25-28 - CAEE Teaching OUTSIDE the Box Conference

July 26 - Florissant Heritage Day and Hornbek Homestead Tour

August 9 - Tabeguache Ute Dancing, sponsored by the Pikes Peak Historical Society

September 20 - Friends Annual Meeting and Potluck

October 3-5 - Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods

For more information about these events, visit the calendar.

Seminars:

Three free community seminars will be held at Colorado College this spring. Planning for the summer teacher and continuing education seminars is underway. Stay tuned for more information about the spring and summer seminar series!

Get Involved:

Join us at one of our monthly Board meetings to get involved in fundraising and event planning. The Friends are actively seeking new Board and committee members. Meetings are usually the second Thursday of the month at the Woodland Park or Florissant Libraries. For more information, contact Sally Maertens at smaertens@fossilbeds.org

Read former Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument intern J.J. Huie’s full article in the Spring 2008 Friends newsletter!

With Deep Roots in Colorado: The Ponderosa Pine

by J.J. Huie

I like running in Colorado when the sound of my breathing is drowned out by a wind so violent it causes the arms of the ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa) to thrash about wildly. Hundreds of miles from the Pacific, in the foothills next to Rampart Range near Colorado Springs, I feel like I’m sailing through an ocean storm. In crossing this ocean, however, there is no salty scent or giant, looming swells; instead, I have the waving motion of the ponderosas and the rich aroma they exude.

In Colorado, the ponderosa pine ecosystem can be found at an elevation range of 5,600 feet to 9,000 feet on both sides of the Continental Divide, with ponderosas dominating on sunny, south-facing slopes. Throughout much of the elevation range of the ponderosa, Douglas-firs predominate on the shadier, north-facing slopes. Direct solar radiation is critical to the ponderosa, which germinates best on soils with unobstructed sunlight. Standing close to a mature tree, I enjoy the scent of vanilla that the orange-brown bark gives off as it’s warmed by the sun.

A distinctive feature of ponderosas is their long needles (up to 7 inches in length), which come in bundles of two or three needles. The needles of ponderosas are the longest among conifers in Colorado. Some ponderosas are among the largest trees in the Southern Rockies (the area from southern Wyoming through Colorado to northern New Mexico), growing up to 150 feet in height and more than 3 feet in diameter.

Mature trees usually have rounded crowns, while the oldest trees can have flat-topped crowns, unlike most other conifer species. Mature cones are globe shaped and can be up to 6 inches long; each of the cone’s thick scales is tipped with a sharp bristle.

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Last summer, teacher Greg Spalding led the effort to revise Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument’s Junior Ranger Program. Spalding received a Junior Ranger Ambassador grant, and after a week of training in Washington, D.C., he worked with Lead Interpretive Ranger Jeff Wolin to redesign the park’s Junior Ranger activity book.

Spalding also organized the Monument’s first Junior Ranger Day on July 21, 2007. Young visitors learned about fire safety, fossils, and wildlife with activities such as making plaster casts of animal tracks and splitting shale to find fossils.

“The new Junior Ranger book has more activities and reaches a wider audience,” Wolin says. “The activities are engaging, educational, and fun.”

The Friends and the Junior Ranger Ambassador Grant paid for the printing of the new activity book, which was published in December. Kids and parents love the new program:

I wanted to send a thank you to all of the staff and the ranger who assisted our family on Saturday this past week. Traveling to NPS sites is a hobby and something we have done for some years now. You have an excellent site. But you have excellent people which just adds to the site.

My daughter loves the Junior Ranger Programs and as I shared that day, yours is the best I have seen out of the dozens we have done. The staff who assisted her just continue to build that passion for history and nature and I cannot thank you enough for this.

That was one of the best mornings we have spent and I thank you for the experience. I hope you will send this to your district supervisor because our next generations are being educated by some great people…you. As both a parent and a citizen, I can not stress enough how impressed I was with your work.

Greg Block

The Junior Ranger Program is always available during the park’s visitation hours. For more information, call 719-748-3253 or ask at the front desk in the Visitor Center when you visit. Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is open 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., 7 days a week, except Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.

-Melissa Barton

Photo Credits: Friends Vice President and park volunteer Sally Maertens helps young visitors make casts of tracks (NPS Photo), Ranger Jeff Wolin and Junior Rangers take the Junior Ranger Pledge (NPS Photo)