Rural Texas
Waco Has an Ice Age Nursery, Preserved in Fossils
Waco Mammoth National Monument preserves evidence of a Columbian mammoth nursery herd, while ongoing research revises the story of how fossils were deposited.
TPR Fun Fact | Texas Geography
You Can Find an Ancient Sea Reef High Above the West Texas Desert
Long before the Guadalupe Mountains rose above the desert, this part of Texas lay beneath an ancient sea.
During the Permian Period, the Capitan Reef grew along the edge of the Delaware Sea. Unlike many modern coral reefs, its principal builders were algae and microbes.
Sediments eventually buried the reef. Over millions of years, geological uplift and erosion helped expose its ancient limestone high above the surrounding desert.
Today, Guadalupe Mountains National Park preserves remarkable evidence of that underwater world, including marine fossils embedded in the rock.
What looks like rugged mountain wilderness today was once part of a thriving marine ecosystem.
Sources
- National Park Service — Guadalupe Mountains National Park, “Coral Reefs”
- National Park Service — Guadalupe Mountains National Park, “Geologic Formations” (burial, uplift and erosion)
The Texas Public Record
Rights. Records. Accountability.
#TexasFunFacts #TexasGeography #GuadalupeMountains #TexasHistory #TexasPublicRecord