Las Vegas fossil site featured in Park Service promotion
The Las Vegas Valley’s new monument has been picked to be the poster child for the National Park Service’s annual celebration of all things fossilized.
Three iconic ice age animals whose bones have been found at Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument are featured on the promotional artwork for National Fossil Day 2016, which will be held Oct. 12.
The Park Service unveiled the artwork this week. It depicts a saber-toothed cat stalking a long-horned bison as a giant ice age condor circles overhead.
“The landscape is an idealized representation of Southern Nevada within what is now Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument,” the service’s announcement reads.
Jon Burpee is the superintendent and sole employee so far at the monument, which was established in December 2014 on almost 23,000 acres at the valley’s northern edge.
He said he is thrilled to see such “national focus” on a “brand-new park” like his.
“It’s a huge honor,” Burpee said.
According to its website, the Park Service has marked National Fossil Day each October since 2011 to “promote public awareness and stewardship of fossils, as well as to foster a greater appreciation of their scientific and educational value.”
Tens of thousands of fossilized bones from a wide variety of Pleistocene creatures have been discovered in the chalky hills along the upper Las Vegas Wash. Researchers prize the area for its abundance of fossils and their geologic context within a wide and well-preserved, 250,000-year span covering the last several ice ages.
The land set aside as a national monument represents the last remaining undeveloped portion of that fossil-rich deposit, which underlies much of the valley including portions of the Strip.
Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Find him on Twitter: @RefriedBrean