Science and Research

Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument was established as the 405th unit of the National Park Service Dec. 19, 2014. Scientific investigations of the area began in the early 1900s, culminating in the 1962-63 Tule Springs expedition. A long scientific hiatus ended with exhaustive paleontological excavations in the 2000s.

These scientific excavations and findings have shown that the park contains the single largest and most diverse open-site assemblage of vertebrate fossils from the end of the Pleistocene epoch found in the Mojave Desert and the southern Great Basin.