Pawnee Buttes

January 10, 2006

Pawnee_buttes_s

Provided and copyright by: Dale Chadwick
Summary authors & editors: Dale Chadwick

Pawnee Buttes, located in northeastern Colorado, are remnants of the White River Formation of the Oligocene Epoch. This is a portion of the same formation found in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. There are abundant fossils in the buttes and in the badlands around the buttes as well. Fossils shown include a jaw with teeth, possibly an oreodont (left insert), a turtle (middle insert), and a limb bone (right insert). The bone has changed little over the eons, except it's now stained with psilomelane, a manganese mineral.

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