Michael Voorhies is a retired

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

and

earth scientist Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres, ...

whose career was affiliated with the

University of Nebraska State Museum The University of Nebraska State Museum, also known as Morrill Hall, founded in 1871, is a natural history museum featuring Nebraska biodiversity, paleontology, and cultural diversity, located on the University of Nebraska–Lincoln City Campus nea ...

. He is best known for discovering the

Ashfall Fossil Beds The Ashfall Fossil Beds of Antelope County in northeastern Nebraska are rare fossil sites of the type called lagerstätten that, due to extraordinary local conditions, capture an ecological "snapshot" in time of a range of well-preserved fossil ...

, a

National Natural Landmark The National Natural Landmarks (NNL) Program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the natural history of the United States. It is the only national natural areas program that identifies and recognizes the best ...

Antelope County, Nebraska Antelope County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 6,295. Its county seat is Neligh. The county was formed in 1871. It received its name after a group of early settlers kil ...

. Acreage within the site has been preserved as the Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park.

Discovery

Voorhies stated that he and his wife Jane Voorhies discovered the site on a hike in 1971 when they caught sight, by chance, of a fossilized animal skull eroding out of a Verdigre Creek farm slope carved by water erosion. The skull proved to be part of a lagerstätten, a bonanza site of well-preserved remains from a group of life-forms fossilized at a single moment in time. Investigations showed that the a water-cut gully, part of an overall local pattern of agricultural erosion, had chipped down a layer of Nebraska

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

caprock that had previously granted durable, multi-million-year protection to a bed of volcanic ash. The ash, deposited by a catastrophic supervolcano eruption during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

geological epoch approximately 12 million years before the present, had killed the Miocene animals and preserved their remains. Subsequent digs uncovered numerous fossilized remains of animals ancestral to today's camels,

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s, and

rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

es. Prior to the eruption, the central North American site had been a

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

watering hole similar to geological formations found today in East Africa. Voorhies took steps to popularize his discovery, including an article published in 1981 in the periodical National Geographic. Advocacy work, led by Voorhies, persuaded the Nebraska Game and Parks Foundation to purchase a land parcel encompassing the excavation site in 1986. The land parcel was opened to the public as a state park in 1991. The site was declared a National Natural Landmark in 2006, and the ''Hubbard Rhino Barn'', an on-site public viewing site for continuing paleontological excavation, was opened in 2009.

Honors and legacy

In October 2013, Voorhies was named as a recipient of the Henry Fonda Award from the Nebraska Tourism Commission for his discovery, study, and development of the Ashfall Fossil Beds.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Voorhies, Michael American paleontologists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)