SIGNIFICANT SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO PALEONTOLOGICAL DISCOVERY, RESEARCH, AND CONSERVATION AT THE FLORISSANT FOSSIL BEDS, COLORADO

Florissant, Colorado was among the first significant paleontological sites recognized during the earliest scientific exploration of the American West. Fossils from the site attracted the attention of scientists beginning with the Hayden Survey during the 1870s. Florissant became widely known from the published works of paleontologists Leo Lesquereux, Samuel Scudder, and E.D. Cope as they described hundreds of new species of fossil plants, insects, spiders, and vertebrates during the 1870s to 1900. Many other paleontologists followed during the twentieth century, notably T.D.A. Cockerell and Harry D. MacGinitie. These combined works ultimately resulted in the description of more than 1700 fossil species, documenting Florissant as one of the world’s taxonomically most diverse fossil sites. Many of the type specimens of the first-described fossils were collected by an early homesteader, Charlotte Hill, who lived at the site and contributed to the scientific discovery by providing specimens to Scudder and Lesquereux. The first geologic map of Florissant was prepared in 1878 by pioneering Colorado geologist Arthur Lakes, who was an early member of the Colorado Scientific Society (CSS). Exactly a century later another CSS member, Rudy Epis, coauthored the published USGS geologic map of Florissant. Ongoing research about paleontology, geology, and history of science at Florissant is supported by an active paleontology program, and contributors to this effort include interns as well as current CSS members such as Emmett Evanoff, Beth Simmons, and Libby Prueher. Florissant’s fossils became attractions for commercial tourism by the late 1800s and the focal point for the establishment of a national monument in the 1960s. The controversial effort to create the monument involved scientists such as Estella Leopold who stepped forward as activists, and along with their lawyers they helped to prompt the innovative legal strategies that laid the groundwork for subsequent environmental conservation in the state. This combination of science, tourism, and conservation makes Florissant a landmark in the history of Colorado.