Well preserved?

"Weevil Beetles are my favorite insect because they have such cute little bodies and a snout"
Jenell Thoene-Henning

Jenell Thoene-Henning completed her project as a master's thesis while working as a paleontology intern at Florissant.

 

Well Preserved?

Does Rock type affect insect preservation at Florissant?

Much of the early literature on Florissant attributes the preservation of leaves and insects to catastrophic eruptions of the Guffey volcano. These accounts oftern remark on teh quality, abundance, and diversity of the paper sale fossils as the "Best."
Recent research has shed light on these sensational claims, and the following study might change your perception of Floirssant's fossils, too.

 

A Good Fossil is Hard to Find

To get the answers she was looking for, Jenell Thoene-Henning's method required a large collection of fossils from several rock layers.

Although Florissant's fossils have long had the reputation for high quality, this study challenges that assumption and also shows that it takes a lot of time and effort to find well-preserved fossils!

"More labor is required to obtain a given number of specimens than at any other fossil [lant locality the writer has visited.'
Dr. Harry D. MacGinitie, 1953

 

The Results: They may surprise you!

As you can see here, most of the fossil insects found in this study were damaged or incompelete. These results directly contradict claims that Florissant's fossils are consistently high quality... in fact, only one in every ten insects showed "excellent" preservation quality. Although this may seem surprising, it makes the extraordinary fossils that have found here all the more impressive.