Badlands National Park: A Window to the Past

The Badlands area, world-renown for rich deposits of mammalian fossils, has been a site for exciting paleontological discoveries for over a hundred years. In 1846, Dr. Hiram Prout, a St. Louis physician illustrated the first vertebrate fossil from the White River Badlands. Since then, paleontologists and others fascinated with the natural history of the Badlands have collected, studied and recorded their finds. In 1939, Badlands National Monument was established to protect the unique concentration of fossils found in this area. As the importance of fossils would be recognized later in the century, the Badlands would be redesignated as a National Park by United States Congress in 1978.

In 1993, two park visitors discovered some vertebrae extruding from the ground near where they were hiking. As these fossils were being uncovered, more kept being found at the site. This site has continued to be excavated by paleontologists since 1993, with over 6000 individual bones found within the site so far. This site has been affectionately nick-named the "Big Pig Dig" after the Archaeotherium, a pig-like animal whose remains are commonly found at the site. The fossils uncovered up to this date lead paleontologists to believe this to have been a watering hole that attracted various animals to it during drought years, similar to the watering holes found in Africa today. Animals were trapped in the soft mud, died, were scavenged upon, were buried and preserved in the sediment, leaving highly articulated fossils for us to find today.

Because the Park is still being researched by paleontologists, each fossil found within the park helps to determine the complex environment that once existed in this area. Without even one of these non-renewable fossils resources, it becomes very difficult to completely understand what the Badlands were like millions of years ago. Please respect Park policy and the science of paleontology - don't remove fossils from the Park.

The National Park Service employs hundreds of interpretive rangers each year to help the public better understand our country's natural resources. At Badlands National Park, there are many programs that discuss the importance of paleontology. These include daily Fossil Talks and Geology Walks, as well as the annual Focus of Fossils Week, held this year from July 7 through July 13. For more information relating to Focus on Fossils Week and the activities scheduled at Badlands National Park, please contact Ben Brehmer at 605-433-5244.