Known the world over as a premier destination for bird watching and wildlife conservation, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge recently added an unexpected and unusual species to its list of mammals that once called the refuge home. On February 22, two geologists from the New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources and a student from New Mexico Tech discovered a fossil embedded in a rock face. Paleontologists from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science have confirmed the fossil is from an oreodont, an extinct group of hoofed ungulates that were unique to North America and lived during the Miocene era between 10 and 15 million years ago.
Dr. Dave Love and Dr. Richard Chamberlin, two geologists with the New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources, a division of New Mexico Tech, and Colin Cikoski, a NM Tech graduate student were conducting a geologic mapping project on the wildlife refuge when they came upon a fossilized upper and lower jaw and other fragmentary fossil bones.
"We noticed an exposed fault, and I could see a white thing in the canyon wall, which I knew right away was a fossil," said Dr. Love. "The closer we got the better it looked. We took a picture and went to let the Refuge and the museum know about the fossil."
According to Dr. Love, the fossil was in a 10-million-year-old layer of sandstone and conglomerate of the Popotosa Formation of the Santa Fe Group. He added that the fossil is significant because it is the first known fossil discovered in this formation in the area.
Last week, a team led by Gary Morgan, Assistant Curator at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, visited the site to excavate the fossil. The fossil, embedded in a steep cliff face, was carefully removed from the mix of soft sands, gravel, and rock. Before completely removing the fossil from the rock it was wrapped in plaster to protect during transport to the Museum of Natural History and Science where it will be further evaluated.
"Oreodont fossils are uncommon in the Southwest. In New Mexico, most previous records are from the northern part of the state near Espa
