Mastodons, mammoths, camels, horses, giant bison and giant sloths roaming the mountainsides of the Rocky Mountains may seem like something that only Hollywood could dream up but there is abundant evidence that North America was once home to a thriving community of animals that today we might associate with the African Serengeti.
Previously (The Snowmastodon Fossil Discovery) we visited a high alpine reservoir dug out of what used to be a high alpine lake. The sediments that had filled in that lake preserved tens of thousands of bones from more than 40 vertebrate animals species. How did this lake form? How did it fill up with sediment? How did all these bones come to be preserved here? How did the animals preserved here get to Colorado?
Ziegler Reservoir at Snowmass showing how the site of this ancient lake that sits nearly on top of a mountain ridge. From…
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James' Ramblings 