The Big Five

Geoheritage Highlight!

Florissant was one of the first fossil sites to become well known during early scientific exploration of the American West. Many scientists contributed to this legacy, and our heritage of scientific knowledge about this valley and its fossils began with their discoveries.

 

Overlooking a stump that was almost sent to the World's Fair!

NPS/SIP: Mariah Slovacek

Early Research

Scientific research of Florissant's fossils began in the 1870s when the earliest scientists arrived as part of the government-sponsored Hayden Survey of the Rocky Mountains. The Hayden Survey helped launch many of its scientists into brilliant careers. Since then, more than 150 scientists have followed in their footsteps in studying Florissant's fossils. About 20 museums and universities in the United States and United Kingdom contain the Florissant specimens described in scientific literature.

 

Lesquereux described this Florissant pine cone in 1883. (USNM-387525)

Left: Smithsonian Institution Archives. Right: Courtesy of the National Museum of Natural History

Leo Lesquereux
(1806-1889)

Lesquereux was the first to publish scientific information on Florissant's paleontology in 1873. He described the fossil plants from the Hayden Survey. Much of his collection is at the National Museum of Natural History and the Yale Peabody Museum.

 

The short-horned grasshopper pictured above is one of the hundreds of insects described by Scudder. (MCZ-7)

Left: Harvard University, Ernst Mayr Library Archive. Right: Courtesy of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University

Samuel Scudder
(1837-1911)

A paleontologist that worked with the U.S. Geological Survey, Scudder was one of the first scientists in the area. He worked with the Hayden Survey to describe about 600 new species of fossil insects from Florissant, and published The Tertiary Insects of North America in 1890. His large collections are today housed in Harvard Univserity's Museum of Comparative Zoology.

 

Cockerell considered the robber fly seen above as one of the finest insect fossils found during his 1906 excavation. (UCM-4522)

Left: University of Colorado Boulder Library Archives. Right: Courtesy of the University of Colorado Museum

Theodore D.A. Cockerell
(1866-1948)

Professor Cockerell came from the University of Colorado. From 1906-1908, he organized expeditions to Florissant and collected some of the most impressive fossils ever to come from this area. Cockerell was very generous with his exchange of specimens. His huge collections, mostly at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, can also be found in other museums throughout the United States and United Kingdom.

 

The soldier beetle was one of many Florissant fossil insects described by Wickham. (USNM 59652)

Left: *University of Iowa Archive. Right: Courtesy of the National Museum of National History

Henry F. Wickham
(1866-1933)

H.F. Wickham was an entomologist who studied beetles at the University of Iowa. In 1912, he dug a trench six feet deep and twenty feet long in the Florissant shale beds to make new collections, and described 356 species of fossil beetles. Today, his collections are at the National Museum of Natural History.

 

MacGinitie described this Florissantia fruit. (UCMP-3619)

Left: NPS. Right: Courtesy of the University of California Museum of Paleontology.

Harry D. MacGinitie
(1896-1987)

Harry MacGinitie made extensive excavations at Florissant in 1936 and 1937. He completed the monograph Fossil Plants of the Florissant Beds, Colorado in 1953. MacGinitie's excavations used a horse and plow to remove layers of soil and rock. His collections can be found today at the University of Californa Museum of Paleontology.

 

The Hayden Survey

The Ferdinand V. Hayden Survey was one of the government's "Four Great Surveys of the West" and initiated scientific exploration and mapping between 1867 and 1878. Some of the great paleontologists of the time—Leo Lesquereux, Samuel Scudder, and Edward D. Cope—were contributers to the Hayden Survey and described many of the first fossils. Because of their discoveries here, Florissant quickly rose to world fame early in the history of the United States.