• Massive petrified redwood stumps

    Florissant Fossil Beds

    National Monument Colorado

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  • Exhibit Installation May 14 - 22

    New exhibits will be installed in the new visitor center May 14 - 22. Access to the park film and exhibits may be reduced. You may want to consider visiting after May 23 if you schedule permits. The park remains open every day from 9am - 5pm.

Online Curriculum - Introduction (Unit 1)

Introduction to the Online Curriculum

The Online College Curriculum was created to give students and teachers a pre-field-trip exercise that provides an insight into the history and science of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument before your visit. It may also be used independently for an introduction to concepts like leaf-margin analysis, geologic mapping, and how to use the park's paleontology database. Although designed for introductory college classes, this curriculum may also be appropriate for some upper level high school earth science students.

To the Instructor

Each unit contains information about the geology or paleontology of the Monument, followed by a quiz and/or exercise designed to test students' grasp of the information given. Please feel free to create your own tests from the material provided. To obtain answer keys and ask any questions about how to use this website for your class, please contact the park.

To the Student

The curriculum can be navigated by using the bar at the top of each page. Please begin by following the link at the bottom of the page. You may also navigate by using the side bar navigation. We hope you have fun gaining a better understanding of the geology and paleontology of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.

This website makes use of Javascript in places, so please enable Javascript in your browser before beginning.

Let's learn more about Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.

Did You Know?

leaf fossil

In 1922, Fossil Cycad National Monument, in South Dakota, was established as the third NPS area to preserve fossils, however by the mid 1930s all the fossils visible at the surface had been removed, leaving nothing for visitors to see. As a result, congress removed Fossil Cycad National Monument from the National Park System in 1957.