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M R S . V A L E N T I N E

FOSSIL BUTTE

LOCATION

• This National Monument is found in southwestern Wyoming’s sagebrush desert.

DESCRIPTION

• Climate: Average to the normal temperature of Wyoming.• Biome:

Grassland Biome

WILDLIFE

• All of the wildlife that previously lived here is now dead and fossilized. The fossils are among the most nearly perfectly preserved remains of ancient plant and animal life in the world. There is a broad spectrum of species that is found here. This includes over 20 kinds of fish, 100 types of insects, and multiple varieties of plants.

WHAT GROWS HERE?

• “Fossil Butte National Monument today is a semi-arid landscape of flat-topped buttes and ridges dominated by sagebrush, other desert shrubs, and grasses”.

PRESERVATION

• This specific area of land is important to preserve because the fossils that remain here are among the most detailed and well preserved fossils to date.• Rapid burial in calcium

carbonate.

THREATS

• Erosion• Earthquakes• This could lead to damage in the fossils and

potentially break down the rock and destroy the whole preservation site.

WORKS CITED

• http://www.nps.gov/fobu/index.htm• http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/parks/fobu/