PALEONTOLOGIC INVENTORY OF MOUNT HOLMES AND TRILOBITE POINT, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

In 1878 two topographic features in Yellowstone National Park were named after invertebrate fossils identified by William Henry Holmes of the Hayden expedition. Trilobite Point and Trilobite Lake lie just to the northeast of Mt. Holmes in the park's northwest region. Although these features bear the name Trilobite, little is known about these fossils and the sediments which preserve them. During the week of August 27, 2002, an interdisciplinary team of scientists, resource managers and naturalists conducted a systematic inventory of fossil-bearing middle Cambrian units in the Mount Holmes region of Yellowstone National Park. This investigation retraced the steps of William Henry Holmes and Charles Doolittle Walcott in an effort to obtain baseline information on invertebrate fossils identified by Holmes in 1878 and described by Walcott in 1915. A representative sample consisting of 93 specimens demonstrating 3 genera of trilobite at least 3 distinct types of brachiopod, 4 Hyolithid specimens, a number of trace fossils, sponge spicules and 1 crinoid calyx plate were collected from 11 localities in the field. The abundance and accessibility of fossils, increasing public interest and corresponding escalation of the commercial fossil market has created additional pressures for the protection and management of park fossils. The National Park Service Omnibus Management Act of 1998 directs the National Park Service to use a broad program of the highest-quality science and information in managing and protecting units of the national park system. This management act continues its efforts to systematically inventory and monitor park resources to establish baseline information and provide information to park decision makers about the long-term trends in the condition of park resources. Additional paleontologic surveys are needed to allow for appropriate managerial decisions regarding Yellowstone’s Fossil resources.