Geologic Points of Interest by Activity - Fossil Tracks

Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest (2)
Manti-LaSal National Forest (1)
Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest (2)

Forest	Humboldt-Toiyabe
Site Name	Fossil Cave Bear at the White Pine Public Museum, Ely NV
Directions	The museum is located at 2000 Aultman Street, Ely, Nevada 89301, 775-289-4710. www.wpmuseum.org wpmuseum@sbcglobal.net
Description	The bones of two giant short-faced bears (Arctodus simus) were discovered in a White Pine County cave on National Forest Land in 1982. A model of one of these 12,000-year-old “Cave Bears” is exhibited at the White Pine Public Museum. The giant short-faced bear is an extinct species of bear that lived in prehistoric North America from about 800,000 to 12,500 years ago. It was the largest mammal carnivore to live on the North American continent. This giant bear was up to 50% larger than the largest living bears. During the Pleistocene, the North-American plains where roamed by Arctodus simus. It was larger than any bear alive today, 700 kilos heavy, and 1.7 meter high at the shoulder. When it stood on its hind legs, it was 3 meters high. Unlike many other bears, who used to be omnivores, the Short-faced Bear was just a carnivore. Bears do not have an ideal body construction to hunt. They are built for strength, not for speed. Although they can run faster than people can, this is not fast enough to catch up with prey. The Short-faced Bear solved this problem by evolving longer legs so it could run faster. With its size and strength, it would be able to scare other predators, dire wolves, and sabertooth cats, away from their prey, which would have made it an effective scavenger. Arctodus simus probably hunted on deer, horses, buffalo and juvenile mammoths and ground sloths.
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Forest	Humboldt-Toiyabe
Site Name	Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Monument
Directions	This monument is located 23 miles east of Gabbs on Highway 884.
Description	Today Nevada lies almost entirely within the Great Basin, an area between the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountain ranges filled with smaller mountain systems. During the Late Triassic, Nevada was located within a large basin, which was filled with a vast system of shallow seas and lakes. Populating these seas were cephalopods, nautiloids, fish, and several intriguing and mysterious ichthyosaurs. One particular ichthyosaur, the 225 million year old Shonisaurus popularis, has been designated the official state fossil. The ichthyosaurs were a group of Mesozoic marine reptiles, somewhat dolphin-like in their appearance, which generally possessed streamlined bodies, powerful tails, thin jaws, and four basic flippers. The first ichthyosaurs known are relatively small, and come from the Early Triassic. Over time, this lineage gets much larger, as is evident by the massive Shonisaurus. Measuring in at 50 feet and 20-35 tons, Shonisaurus is one of the largest ichthyosaurs known. Coupled with its brute size, Shonisaurus also possessed an advanced fish-like tail, long and powerful fins, and a strong, deep skeleton. The size and advanced affinities of Shonisaurus have helped paleontologists rewrite the thinking on Late Triassic ichthyosaurs. However, equally impressive as the anatomy of this massive beast is the story of its discovery. The storied history of Shonisaurus began in 1928, when miners in the Shoshone Mountain town of Berlin noticed several strange skeletons eroding from a sandstone cliff. Many of the more ambitious miners explored the site themselves, collecting unusual looking bones and displaying them in their homes. Some even used the heavy vertebrae of this odd creature as dinner plates! Soon the site was brought to the attention of scientists, who determined that 37 ichthyosaur individuals died and were preserved near Berlin. However, it was not until some 30 years later that Charles Camp and Sam Welles of the University of California launched a full-scale excavation. After an intense study of the site, Camp concluded that the ichthyosaurs, which he named Shonisaurus popularis, were marooned by a receding tide on a bay mudflat, and much like beached whales, slowly died. In recent years, this theory has come under much scrutiny, and many scientists now believe that the Shonisaurus individuals simply died, fell to the sea bottom, and were buried. In addition to studying the fossils, Camp also urged that the site be preserved. His dreams were made reality in 1955, when the site was officially designed Ichthyosaur Paleontological State Monument. The mining claims of Berlin were later purchased in 1970, and the park was renamed Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park. Seven years later, the legislature of Nevada declared Shonisaurus popularis the official state fossil. Today, this massive, powerful, and storied ichthyosaur is considered a vital link to understanding the ecology of Triassic seas.
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Forest	Manti-La Sal
Site Name	Huntington Mammoth
Directions	Location of mammoth remains: College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum in Price, UT Location of original find: From Fairview, UT off Highway 89, travel east into Fairview Canyon on Highway 31. Turn south on Skyline Drive. Head east on Highway 31 towards Huntington Reservoir.
Description	During the 1988 reconstruction of the Huntington Reservoir dam, workers discovered the remains of a giant Columbian mammoth. The mammoth, a bull, lived about 11,000 years ago and was about 60 years old when it died. The discovery is significant since the extinct mammoth was found at 9,000 feet and scientists believed mammoths usually inhabited low-lying areas. (Since that time, mammoth remains have been found in Colorado at 10,000 feet as well). Mammoths and Mastodons are two types of elephants that lived in Utah during the last Pleistocene ice age. Their closest living relatives are the African and Asian elephants.
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Forest	Uinta-Wasatch-Cache
Site Name	Bald Mountain Pass and Overlook
Directions	East of Kamas, UT, follow Highway 150 along the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway towards Evanston, WY.
Description	A large faulted anticline makes up the Uinta Mountain Range and the Bald Mountain Pass and Overlook is one of a few great places to see the Uintah Mountains and all their geologic beauty. Driving to this overlook, one will see horizontal layers of Precambrian rocks, the Uinta Mountain group, as they show off their colors of green-gray shale and orange quartzite. At the overlook itself, some of the oldest known fossils, algae (known more specifically as stromatolites), have been found in the evenly bedded layers of light gray limestone. Look for bumps on the flat rock surfaces. These represent the fossil remains of these ancient algal structures. All around Bald Mountain remains the evidence of glacial activity. Glacial erratics, ground moraines, and an abundance of small lakes testify of an erosive ice age (Chronic, 1990).
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Forest	Uinta-Wasatch-Cache
Site Name	Fucoidal Quartzite
Directions	Logan Canyon Scenic Byway (Utah 89).
Description	This rock is the cemented sand of an ancient beach deposit in early Ordovician time some 400 million years ago. The seaweed-like structures and the rock are the castings, filled burrows, and trails of marine worms.
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