The Ancient Floral Splendor and Paleoenvironments of Grand Canyon National Park

Article by Katherine M. M. Bober, Texas A&M University

Introduction
Grand Canyon National Park (GRCA) is one of the most well-known areas of the United States of America. For decades, visitors have viewed its superlative geological formations (Figure 1) and the views down to the Colorado River, which has been cutting through these formations for several million years here.

Figure 1: Geological formations present in GRCA and nearby (Billingsley et al., 2019).

Billingsley et al. (2019)

But what lies within the exposed rocks of the Grand Canyon? What can we see beyond the majestic views that GRCA affords us? There are a multitude of fossils within GRCA, and each find is an important part of the story of the Colorado Plateau. Indeed, both the fossils and the rocks in which they are preserved tell a story of the different paleoenvironments of the Grand Canyon.

David White is on the left with John C. Merriam on the right (NPS).

NPS

History of Paleobotany in GRCA
The bulk of paleobotanical research within GRCA took place in the first half of the 20^th century, but there have been investigations in the 1980s, 1990s, and more recently in the 21^st century. Plant fossils within the Hermit Formation were first discovered by Charles Schuchert in 1915 (Schuchert, 1918). During the summers of 1926 to 1928, David White (Figure 2), a paleobotanist who worked for the United States Geological Survey, collected field specimens after being sent samples by Schuchert back in 1918 (Knight, 2021). White wrote a monograph in 1929 that named 25 new genera and species of plants found in the Permian-age Hermit Formation in the park: these new species included examples from conifer, seed fern and horsetail families (White, 1929).