Seas had come and gone across the land a few times and, at this point, the western half of Colorado looked really different than the east. Ancestral RockiesĬolorado’s fossil history becomes much more visible starting around 300 million years ago. After about 400 million years ago, we also find sharks in Colorado’s oceans. Instead, they fed by sucking water and food through mouth slits in their armor. What’s cool about these early fish is that they had bony armor covering their bodies and no jaws. Near Cañon City, paleontologists have found evidence of primitive fish in rocks that are about 450 million years ago. In the sediments deposited throughout this time, there are burrows and trails of worms and other marine critters, shellfish known as brachiopods, sponges, clams, snails, and trilobites. It was covered with a shallow ocean that existed off and on in various parts of the state for the next 200 million years. Photo: Dave ThomasĮven though some rocks in Colorado are literally billions of years old, these aren’t the types of rocks that contain fossils the first evidence of ancient life in the state is only about 500 million years ago.Īt this time of the Age of Fishes, the land that would become Colorado lay near the Equator. The Paleozoic 541 to 252 million years ago Prehistoric fish skeleton at Dinosaur Resource Center, Woodland Park. Fossils are really the ultimate time machine, and it’s a fun way to head into the past and learn about the state’s prehistory. They can also help us understand what Colorado has looked like through millions of years. Fossils can tell us how organisms moved, ate, reproduced, lived and died, and often how they were related to one another. Fossils can be bones, wood, shells, leaves, tracks, and even feces. JohnĪ fossil is any preserved remains of ancient life-plants, animals, even bacteria and fungi. What Are Fossils? Ornithopod dinosaur skull from Lower Cretaceous Garden of the Gods Visitor Center, Colorado Springs. The state’s fossil history stretches back nearly half a billion years, and Colorado has been the site of some very important discoveries in the field of paleontology. But Colorado is also renowned for fossil discoveries, (especially dinosaurs!). Whether you live in Colorado, vacation there, or just briefly visit on your way through (but really, you should stay a while), you already know about its mountains, mining history, skiing-and of course, its really good craft beer.
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