Hagerman Fossil Beds
Next we stopped at Hagerman Fossil Beds. It is in two seperate areas. We visited the hills first. This is the area where the famous Hagerman Horse was found, along with many other fossils.
The bluffs along the river in this picture were an ancient flood plain millions of years ago. Three to four million years ago, many plants and animals became trapped here in a flood. Their remains became the fossils that scientists find today. The fossils in Hagerman Fossil Beds are some of the most plentiful and diverse collections of Pliocene fossils found in the world.
Then we went to the visitors center. There were interesting fossils to see and a movie to watch about the Monument.
This is the Hagerman Horse Fossil.
The story of its discovery is shown below.
The story of its discovery is shown below.
The Hagerman Horse was actually more closely related to a Zebra and a horse. You can read about that in the picture to the left.
These are beaver fossils.
Head
Left Fore Paw
Left Hind Paw
Below is a replica of a fossilized skull and tusks of a female mastodon.
Haggerman Fossil Beds National Monument
