HAGERMAN FOSSIL BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT TOSSfflL MDdMDD JULY, 1995 VOLUME 4, NUMBER 3 THE BARE BONES VISITOR OF THIS ISSUE: INFORMATION Monument Tours Tour Schedule for Remainder Of Season - Tours of the Fossil Days Recap Monument continue through the end of the season as noted at the end of this newsletter. Activities include horse Volunteer Service quarry tours, Oregon Trail hikes, the Monument by water, and many other Ranger Patrol interpretive programs. Fossil Days - A Success!! New Staff Many thanks to the volunteers and staff of the National Park Service and Resource Management especially to our visitors for making the Fossil Days event a success. Over 1,000 visitors stopped in our Visitor Critter Corner Center. Many enjoyed the outdoors with boat tours of the Monument and Fractures, Seeps bus tours to the horse quarry. and Failures Congratulations to our Chief Ranger, Bob Willhite and wagon driver, Joe "I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if Bennett, for receiving the 3rd Place we unconsciously yield to it, award for Horses and Mules Division will direct us aright." in the Fossil Days Parade. (Henry David Thoreau) HAGERMAN FOSSIL BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT • 221 NORTH STATE STREET • P.O. BOX 570 • HAGERMAN, IDAHO 83332 • PHONE (208) 837-4793 2 Volunteers in Parks (VIPs) - Seasonal Staff - We are happy to We're proud of our VIP's who welcome aboard our newest seasonal contribute their time and patience to staff members. Many of these people our staff by assisting in the field with leave the security of homes and family collection and preparation of fossils; behind, so that they may contribute preparing and cataloging new fossil their skills to science, as well as enjoy finds in the lab; greeting visitors and the great outdoors. answering questions at the Visitor Center; assisting with interpretive programs; and providing Resource Management Staff - administrative skills. Protects the natural, geological, historical, cultural, and paleontological resources of the Monument through If you, or someone you know would surveys, management plans, and like to volunteer at least 20 hours per computer preparation. month, contact Park Ranger James Ward at (208) 837-4793. Neal Farmer - Outdoor activities have always been a part of Neal's life. In fact one of his earliest memories occurred along the Snake River...he fell in! Ranger Patrol - We are fortunate But that didn't sway him from to have another ranger on our staff experiencing the outdoors. He loves to with a background in law enforcement. scuba dive, fish, swim, snow ski, hunt, Mark Schaffeld is a graduate of Boise travel, find fossils and rocks. Neal State University with a degree in received a bachelors degree in geology Criminal Justice Administration. An from the University of Idaho, and is experienced firefighter, he will also be currently working on his masters leading interpretive programs this degree in, yes you guessed it, water. summer. "I may have once hated the 'mighty Snake' but I greet the river of life with Staff members were able to attend fire open arms." fighting training with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) this June. Jim Miller - Although, being part of We now have several people available the seasonal staff is a new role, Jim is for wildland fire control, should the familiar with the Monument since he need arise during the summer. 3 has worked as a volunteer for the past receive a masters degree from Miami two summers. His permanent job is as University in Ohio. She developed an a science teacher at Minico High interest in the outdoors and science School in Rupert, where he has been from her husband, a geologist, and teaching Biology and Human Anatomy deterrnined to make the avocation of for the past eight years. Jim and his preserving nature her vocation. wife live in Burley. Mark Schaffeld - Mark is a native Terri L. Salley - Living and working Boisean and a graduate of Boise State on an 80-acre farm has given Terri a University. He has spent the past five sense of appreciation and stewardship years working seasonally for the toward the land. To demonstrate this National Park Service at Crater Lake appreciation, Terri received a B.A. in NP, Sequoia & Kings Canyon NP, and anthropology with an emphasis on Olympic NP, respectively. archeology, and a B.S. in geology from Idaho State University. "I love Mark brings to Hagerman his love for working outdoors and being in touch the outdoors and his desire to protect with the land. All of this, coupled with it's innate beauty. He commutes to my childhood fondness for fossils has work on his bicycle regularly and brought me to Hagerman." Her appreciates fellow travelers sharing husband and daughter have joined her the road with him. "I am excited to for a summer of adventure. have the oppoilimity to work at such a new National treasure with all these Interpretive Staff- Provides the great people." Mark and his wife are visitor with information concerning enjoying the short commute from the natural, geological, historical, Hagerman to Boise on Mark's days cultural, and paleontological resources off. featured at the Monument through talks, guided walks, and audiovisual programs. Judi Hart - "I always wanted to be part of the National Park Service...to work with dedicated people and make a difference in caring for the environment." In order to reach this goal, Judi went back to school to 4 MONUMENTAL Critter Corner SCIENCE Exploring Otter-native Life Styles at Hagerman Resource Management Fossil Beds Q. What's white, weighs 1,000 By Dr. Greg McDonald, pounds, and flies through the air? Monument Paleontologist A. A beaver in a plaster jacket. A quick look at the fossils This ancient and now extinct beaver preserved at Hagerman Fossil Beds (Castor californicus), was airlifted quickly reveals that many of the June 29th by a Bureau of Land species have modern relatives Management (BLM) helicopter out of its resting place on the Monument. associated with wetland or aquatic This 3.5 million year old beaver was envkonments. Fossilized bones of first discovered exposed in July 1994 frogs closely related to the living by our paleontological staff. A plaster leopard frog are quite abundant, as are jacket and wooden frame were formed pieces of shell of two different species around the fossilized remains in an of turtle. Most of the bkd fossils effort to preserve the complete beaver found are waterfowl such as swans, skeleton from further damage. ducks, geese, grebes, pelicans and cormorants. Likewise, aquatic rmmmals including beaver, muskrat This is the first complete skeleton of and otter are frequently encountered. its kind to be found in-place where it Although there are many non-aquatic was buried. During the Pliocene species such as the horse, camel, epoch, aquatic wildlife thrived in this ground sloth and peccary, there is no swampy, savanna-like area enjoying question that among the many types of nearly twice the annual precipitation fossil species found at the Monument, the valley receives today. the fauna is dominated by aquatic forms. This data indicates that 3.5 The remains will be intensely studied million years ago this part of Idaho to better understand the relationship was much wetter and had considerably between the past, present, and future more wetland habitat then exists in the of our envkonment, as well as area todav. adaptive changes in beavers over time. 5 Although the overall amount of living river otter eats fish, frogs, wetland habitat in southern Idaho crayfish and freshwater clams and our today is less than in the past, the fossil otter probably had similar habits. Snake River and associated wetland One major difference of these otters is areas around the Hagerman Valley in the teeth. In Satherium they are provide suitable habitat where many broad and seem better suited for aquatic species can be found. One of crushing rather than shearing food. those aquatic animals that can be seen on occasion is the river otter. Unlike the beaver, in which the fossil species found at the Monument is almost identical with its modern descendant, the fossil otter at Hagerman and the modern otter found along the Snake River today are different and represent two different groups of otters, one originating in the old world and one in the new. The modern river otter, Lutra Jaw and teeth of Satherium piscinarium. canadensis, is closelv related to the otters of Europe and did not appear in North America until about 1.9 million It is likely that the diet of the fossil years ago. Our Hageirnan otter, otter at Hagerman included a higher Satherium piscinarium. is part of a percentage of freshwater clams and New World lineage and is closely crayfish than the modem river otter, related to the giant otter found in since these broader teeth would be Brazil and other pans of tropical South useful for cracking shells. The America and in fact may be its Hagerman fauna includes a variety of ancestor. freshwater clams and snails including a large freshwater mussel called Otters are members of the carnivore Anodonta. Quite abundant as a fossil family Mustelidae, which also includes in the sediments, Anodonta would skunks, weasels, wolverines and have provided a ready food source for badgers. Most members of this group the otter. Another item on the otter's are carnivorous or sometimes menu, crayfish, have been found as omnivorous and the otter is no fossils elsewhere in the Glenns Ferry exception, except the otter catches Formation but onlv indirect evidence most of its prey in the water. The of their presence on the Monument is 6 available.