The rangers at the Grand Canyon provide a variety of excellent walks and informative talks. As my trip comes to an end, I was encouraged to attend the fossil walk. Amazingly enough, the entire rim of the canyon was a lake bed at one time, allowing for an amazing amount of fossils underfoot. The critters fell to the bottom in the mud, and over millions of years, this mud became the layers of rock you see at the surface today. Once the ranger shows you the fossils, you walk around looking at the ground every where you go. Unfortunately I did not take a notebook, so I can't tell you what each of these are. Looks like a perfect Cheerio, but I think this was before their time.
You can see the outer shell of a clam here. Look further below for the guts!!
Foot ... okay, it's not guts ... it's the clams foot.
Same thing here ... this is the under side of the clam thing ....
Another one ... I put my glasses down for perspective. Most were about this size. There were also worm "dens" ... they looked like big black worms, but were actually the holes they resided in.
Here is another finned creature. Pretty cool to find these all over the rocks.
Lastly I found this big sponge. You can still see it's texture.
Exciting, huh??? Well it was when you were looking for them. More exciting to find them in person. Next up, Native Indian Dancing ....
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