STENOMYLUS RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT NEEDS AT AGATE FOSSIL BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT

Beautifully preserved diminutive early Miocene (Arikareean) Stenomylus camels (including complete individuals) were first identified at the Agate Springs Quarries in northwestern Nebraska in 1907. The initial investigations were conducted by Frederick Loomis of Amherst College, who named the type, with subsequent Stenomylus Quarry excavations by the Carnegie Museum, American Museum of Natural History, the Royal Ontario Museum, Harvard, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and Foothills College of Los Angeles. Many of the Stenomylus collected during these expeditions were given to or exchanged with other U. S., Canadian, or European Institutions—at least 32 institutions now hold specimens from the Quarry. There is no comprehensive report of the past recoveries from the quarries, and there have not been any detailed paleoecological investigations of the site and its depositional environment. The Quarry is now a part of Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (Agate), a unit of the U. S. National Park Service. Agate recently commissioned a historic and scientific overview of the quarry activities, with a database of recovered fossils and their curatorial locations, an annotated bibliography, and preliminary management recommendations. This report clearly documents the need for well designed paleoecological and paleontological research at the Quarry, complemented by appropriate protection of exposed fossil remains. The main fossiliferous beds are buried under at least 65’ of stratified alluvial deposits, and any new investigations to contemporary scientific standards will require a significant effort—with significant potential rewards.