Parks Stewardship Forum

The fossil record preserved throughout the parks, monuments, and other areas administered by the National Park Service spans at least 1.4 billion years and reveals rich and diverse paleontological resources available for scientific research and public education. Fossils documented in at least 286 different NPS areas represent important and iconic components of the history of North American paleontology. Our knowledge of the fossil record within the national parks continuously expands based on new paleontological discoveries every year. Most of the new fossil discoveries are associated with four primary management activities undertaken by the NPS Paleontology Program, parks, partners, and cooperating scientists: paleontological resource inventories, monitoring, research, and assessment of fossils curated in museum collections. Paleontological resource inventories focus on the scope, significance, distribution (both temporal and geospatial), and resource management issues associated with park fossils. Paleontological resource monitoring consists of the assessment of the stability and condition of irreplaceable fossils that are present within the parks’ geologic strata and subject to natural processes or anthropogenic activities. Paleontological resource research is typically an academic undertaking to gather new data, fossil specimens, and associated geological or paleoecological information to expand our understanding of these resources in parks. Finally, under the curatorial component, as of 2023 more than 650,000 fossil specimens are being curated in museum collections within the parks themselves or in outside repositories, and are available for future scientific research and use in exhibits or public education. The harmonious combination of inventory, monitoring, research, and use of museum collections has resulted in many new and important paleontological discoveries associated with park fossils. This article, and the others presented in this special issue of Parks Stewardship Forum dedicated to NPS paleontology, highlight some of these new paleontological discoveries from national parks associated with these four management activities.