AN OVERVIEW OF CENOZOIC PALEOBOTANICAL RESOURCES DOCUMENTED IN NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AREAS

An inventory of paleobotanical resources in national parks is being conducted via the Paleontology in the Parks Fellowship Program, an effort jointly sponsored by the National Park Service (NPS) and Paleontological Society (PS). Four teams consisting of a mentor and a student from four different institutions have been reviewing literature to document fossil plants at parks nationwide in collaboration with the NPS and PS. At least 202 different NPS units have some form of plant fossils. The project team divided their study of fossil plants by era, initially focusing only on the 78 parks containing macroscopic paleobotanical resources of the Cenozoic. These fossils represent a range of remains (and taxonomic groups) that include compressions and impressions of seeds, flowers and other reproductive organs, wood, and a variety of other vegetative structures from mosses, ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms. Complete review of Quaternary microflora (such as pollen from woodrat middens) have been excluded from this report because they have been documented separately. The four NPS areas with the most significant Cenozoic paleobotanical resources are Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Fossil Butte National Monument, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, and Yellowstone National Park. These four NPS areas are globally recognized for their Eocene plant fossils. The inventory has included an extensive literature review of existing published, gray literature, and non-published sources of information regarding fossil plants preserved within these parks. A comprehensive manuscript is being developed to report on the Cenozoic paleobotanical resources within NPS parks, which is intended to support both science and resource management involving NPS fossil plants. Future efforts will focus on NPS paleobotanical resources of the Mesozoic and Paleozoic.