CONNECTING NATIONAL PARK SERVICE VISITORS TO PALEONTOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE THROUGH THE PALEOECOSYSTEMS OF THE CENOZOIC FOSSIL PARKS

Six National Park Service areas were established to preserve and interpret fossils of the Cenozoic Era: Fossil Butte National Monument (WY), John Day Fossil Beds National Monument (OR), Badlands National Park (SD), Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (CO), Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (NB), and Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument (ID). These parks preserve a record of changing landscapes, climates, and life forms as well as clues for change affecting our future. The paleoecosystems of these parks span much of the Cenozoic from 52 million years ago (Fossil Butte) to 3.2 million years ago (Hagerman) and provide opportunities to engage the public on the science of paleontology and climate change. Because each of the parks preserves fossils from a local area, there is a tangible connection between the park’s past and present ecosystems. We are developing a training manual to help interpreters integrate their park’s paleoecosystem(s) into the larger context of Cenozoic climate change. The manual will provide interpreters geologic content and interpretive techniques for use in programs and exhibits. Interpreters have a wide range of geology, other science and humanities backgrounds. Sections of the manual will build on these perspectives. The first section provides a foundation of interpretive techniques and paleontological principles including the processes of fossilization, geologic time, and dating techniques. The second section describes the parks’ paleoecosystems in chronological order, beginning with the Eocene nearly tropical or warm temperate (“greenhouse”) lakes and forests of Fossil Butte, John Day, Badlands and Florissant. After profound global climatic change near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, paleoecosystems transitioned to cooler, drier, and more open woodlands, savannahs, and grasslands. Badlands, John Day, Agate, and Hagerman preserve these “icehouse” paleoecosystems of the Oligocene, Miocene, and Pliocene. As ecosystems changed, organisms evolved, migrated, and went extinct. Horse family (Equidae) fossils are preserved in all six parks, providing one interpretive thread. The third section describes Pleistocene-Holocene ice advance and retreat on a cold Earth and uses long term Cenozoic cooling and drying as a context for modern, rapid anthropogenic climate change.