Fossil Lake
The scene 50 million years ago was quite different from that today. Fossil Lake, 50 miles long and 20 miles wide at its maximum, nestled among mountains in a lush green forest of palms, figs, cypress, and other subtropical trees and shrubs. Willows, beeches, oaks, maples, and ferns grew on the lower slopes, and on the cool mountain sides was a spruce and fir forest. In and around the warm waters of the lake, animal life was diverse and abundant. A broad range of fish inhabited the tributaries, shallows, and deep water of Fossil Lake during its unusually long life of more than 2 million years. Gars, paddlefish, bowfins, and stingrays, though they may appear primitive to some, still survive today, as do herring, perch, and mooneyes. The lakeshore was alive with crocodiles and turtles; insects, dog-sized horses, and early primates inhabited the land; birds and bats mastered the air.
The fossils of Fossil Lake are remarkable for their numbers and the broad spectrum of species found here: more than 20 kinds of fish, 100 varieties of insects, and an as yet uncounted number of plants. Paleontologists, the scientists who study fossils, and private collectors have unearthed thousands of specimens during the past 100 years. Many billions more lie buried in the butte and surrounding ridges protected and preserved for future paleontologists to study. The fossils are remarkable for their detail. Many of the fish, for example, retain not only their entire skeletons, but their teeth, delicate scales, and skin as well. Perhaps most remarkable of all is the story the fossils tell of an ancient life and landscape.
