Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, a
United States National Monument
In the United States, a national monument is a protected area that can be created from any land owned or controlled by the federal government by proclamation of the President of the United States or an act of Congress. National monuments prot ...
near
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
,
Clark County,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
, was established in 2014 to protect
Ice Age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...
paleontological
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 (geology), epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes t ...
discoveries. The monument is administered by the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
.
[Brean, Henry (December 19, 2014)]
Obama signs Tule Springs monument into law
''Las Vegas Review-Journal
The ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' is a daily subscription newspaper published in Las Vegas, Nevada, since 1909. It is the largest circulating daily newspaper in Nevada and one of two daily newspapers in the Las Vegas area.
The ''Review-Journal'' ...
''
The national monument is located in the
Upper Las Vegas Wash and protects part of the
Tule Springs
Tule Springs is one of the larger urban retreats in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Las Vegas Valley. It is a significant desert ecosystem consisting of a series of small lakes that formed an oasis in this area of the Mojave Desert. Both the springs ...
. The wash area also includes several patches of the rare
Las Vegas bear poppy
''Arctomecon californica'' is a species of poppy known by several common names, including California bearpoppy, Las Vegas bearpoppy, golden bearpoppy, and yellow-flowered desert poppy. It is a perennial herb that is native to the eastern Mojave D ...
. The land was designated after a local campaign to permanently protect the landscape as a national monument.
Paleontology
Paleontology studies began at Tule Springs in 1933 when the bones of a
Columbian mammoth
The Columbian mammoth (''Mammuthus columbi'') is an extinct species of mammoth that inhabited the Americas as far north as the Northern United States and as far south as Costa Rica during the Pleistocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line ...
were discovered by quarry workers. Other fossils found at the site include ''
Camelops
''Camelops''Being occasionally called ''Western Camel'' or ''Yesterday's Camel''. is an extinct genus of camels that lived in North and Central America, ranging from Alaska to Guatemala, from the middle Pliocene to the end of the Pleistocene. It ...
'',
ground sloth
Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. The term is used to refer to all extinct sloths because of the large size of the earliest forms discovered, compared to existing tree sloths. The Caribbe ...
,
dire wolf
The dire wolf (''Aenocyon dirus'' ) is an extinct canine. It is one of the most famous prehistoric carnivores in North America, along with its extinct competitor ''Smilodon''. The dire wolf lived in the Americas and eastern Asia during the Lat ...
, ''
Teratornis
''Teratornis'' (Greek: "wonder" (teretos), "bird" (ornis)) was a genus of huge North American birds of prey – the best-known of the teratorns - of which, two species are known to have existed: ''Teratornis merriami'' and
''Teratornis woodburnen ...
'', and
American lion
''Panthera atrox'', better known as the American lion, also called the North American lion, or American cave lion, is an extinct pantherine cat that lived in North America during the Pleistocene epoch and the early Holocene epoch, about 340,0 ...
, and range from 7,000 to 250,000 years old.
[A History of Discovery in this Fossil-Rich Area]
Protectors of Tule Springs, 2014
Legislation
The Tule Springs Fossil Beds passed both houses of Congress in December 2014 and signed into law by President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
on December 19, 2014, under Section 3092(a) of the
National Defense Authorization Act for 2015.
See also
*
List of national monuments of the United States
References
External links
Tule Springs Fossil Beds National MonumentPhoto gallery from the Monument free Creative Commons photos.
![Joshua trees at Tule Springs Fossil Beds NM](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Joshua_trees_at_Tule_Springs_Fossil_Beds_NM.jpg)
{{Authority control
Protected areas of Clark County, Nevada
Fossil parks in the United States
Cenozoic paleontological sites of North America
Paleontology in Nevada
2014 establishments in Nevada
Protected areas established in 2014
National Monuments designated by Barack Obama
National Park Service National Monuments in Nevada