The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a

wilderness area Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural) are Earth's natural environments that have not been significantly modified by human activity, or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally ...

located in San Juan County in the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

state of

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. Established in 1984, the Wilderness is a desolate area of steeply eroded

badlands Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, ...

managed by the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

, except three parcels of private

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

land within its boundaries.Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness
- Wilderness.net The

John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Ep ...

, signed March 12, 2019, expanded the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness by approximately 2,250 acres. Translated from the

word , Bisti means "among the adobe formations." De-Na-Zin, from Navajo , translates as "Standing Crane."

Petroglyphs A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

of cranes have been found south of the Wilderness.Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness
- BLM It is on the Trails of the Ancients Byway, one of the designated

New Mexico Scenic Byways Scenic and Historic Byways are highways in New Mexico known for their scenic beauty or historic significance. The New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department Scenic and Historic Byways Program was made effective July 31, 1998 to establ ...

.Trail of the Ancients.
New Mexico Tourism Department. Retrieved August 14, 2014.

Prehistory

The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is the largest area of badlands in the San Juan Basin that is easily accessible to the public. The badlands expose the longest, most complete, and most richly fossiliferous sequence of beds spanning the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary in any single

sedimentary basin Sedimentary basins are region-scale depressions of the Earth's crust where subsidence has occurred and a thick sequence of sediments have accumulated to form a large three-dimensional body of sedimentary rock They form when long-term subsidence ...

in the world. These include four

geologic formations A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics (lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock expo ...

, which, in decreasing order of age, are the

Fruitland Formation The Fruitland Formation is a geologic formation found in the San Juan Basin in the states of New Mexico and Colorado, in the United States of America. It contains fossils dating it to the Campanian age of the late Cretaceous.

, the

Kirtland Formation The Kirtland Formation (originally the Kirtland Shale) is a Sedimentary rock, sedimentary geological formation. Description The Kirtland Formation is the product of alluvial muds and overbank sand deposits from the many channels draining the ...

, the

Ojo Alamo Formation The Ojo Alamo Formation is a geologic Formation (geology), formation in New Mexico spanning the Mesozoic/Cenozoic boundary. Non-avian dinosaur fossils have controversially been identified in beds of this formation dating from after the Cretaceous ...

, and the

Nacimiento Formation The Nacimiento Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in the San Juan Basin of western New Mexico (United States). It has an age of 61 to 65.7 million years, corresponding to the early and middle Paleocene. The formation has yielded an ...

. These formations are exposed in an area of east-to-west valleys that drain to the

Chaco River Chaco River is a river tributary to the San Juan River (Colorado River), San Juan River in San Juan County, New Mexico. Its mouth lies at an elevation of . Its source is located at an elevation of at , its confluence with Chaco Wash and Escavado W ...

to the south. The beds dip about 5 degrees to the northeast so that the oldest beds (Fruitland Formation) are exposed to the southwest, where they are easily visible around the entrance area, while the youngest (Nacimiento Formation) are exposed to the northeast. In the late Cretaceous, North America was divided by the

Western Interior Seaway The Western Interior Seaway (also called the Cretaceous Seaway, the Niobraran Sea, the North American Inland Sea, or the Western Interior Sea) was a large inland sea (geology), inland sea that existed roughly over the present-day Great Plains of ...

, whose western shoreline moved back and forth across what are now the

mountain states The Mountain states (also known as the Mountain West or the Interior West) form one of the nine geographic divisions of the United States that are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau. It is a subregion of the Western Un ...

of the United States. About 74 million years ago, the sea made its final retreat from the Bisti/De-Na-Zin area to the northeast, depositing the Fruitland Formation on top of the shoreline sandstone of the Pictured Cliffs Formation (which is exposed south of the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness.) The Fruitland Formation records flood plains and delta environments behind the receding shoreline, including swamps in which economical deposits of coal were formed. These are mostly found in the Ne-Nah-ne-zad Member of the Kirtland Formation. As the shoreline continued to recede, the Fossil Forest Member was deposited, which has much less coal but is rich in fossils. At the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, the Fruitland Formation consists mostly of gray shales, with thin coal beds and with resistant beds of white sandstones deposited in river channels. The formation also contains brown to purple iron concretions. In some places, the coal caught fire and burned to produce a red, hard rock, called ''clinker'' or ''red dog''. The Kirtland Formation was deposited shortly after the Fruitland Formation, and consists of thick greenish shales and siltstones, with just a few thin coal beds and white sandstone beds. The lower part of this formation is called the Hunter Wash Member and is bounded by a white sandstone bed at its base and a distinctive brown sandstone bed (the Bisti Bed) at its top. Between is drab green siltstone. The middle part of this formation is called the Farmington Sandstone which consists of brown-topped sheets of sandstone. The upper part of the formation is called the De-na-zin Member and is similar to the Hunter Wash Member, but with purple beds near its top. The sandstone of the Farmington Member reflects a time of uplift somewhere nearby, producing high ground from which coarse sediments were eroded. Dinosaurs and other fossils are found scattered throughout the Kirtland Formation. Some 200 species of plant or animal fossils have been identified in the combined Fruitland and Kirland Formations, most of which are found in the Bisti/De-Na-zin Wilderness. The plant fossils include petrified logs, leaf impressions, and carbonized leaves. The Ojo Alamo Formation records the interval immediately around the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. Its lower beds are the Naashoibito Member, which is purple mudstone and white sandstone and were deposited before the end of the Cretaceous. This has sometimes been regarded as part of the Kirtland Formation. The upper part of the formation is the Kimbeto Member, which is massive cliff-forming brown sandstone. These coarse sediments were deposited at a time when mountains were being uplifted in southwestern Colorado, accompanied by volcanic activity. The exact Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, marked by a thin clay layer in other locations, is missing in a time gap between the two members of the formation. Both members are rich in fossils: The Naashoibito Member contains abundant fossils of dinosaurs, turtles, and crocodiles, while the Kimbeto Member contains much fossil wood. Some dinosaur fossils are also found in the Kimbeto, but these are thought to have been originally formed in the Naashoibito Member, weathered out, and redeposited in the younger Kimbeto Member. Such fossils are called ''reworked fossils.'' The Ojo Alamo Formation records a time when the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness was a seasonal tropical forest in which a wide variety of species grew, but in which

angiosperms Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit. T ...

(flowering plants) were dominant. Two groups of herbivorous dinosaurs dominated the area. These were the

hadrosaurs Hadrosaurids (), also hadrosaurs or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod fami ...

(such as ''

Parasaurolophus ''Parasaurolophus'' (; meaning "beside crested lizard" in reference to ''Saurolophus'') is a genus of hadrosaurid "duck-billed" dinosaur that lived in what is now western North America and possibly Asia during the Late Cretaceous period, a ...

'') and the

ceratopsians Ceratopsia or Ceratopia ( or ; Greek: "horned faces") is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Asia and Europe, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Late Jura ...

(such as ''

Pentaceratops ''Pentaceratops'' ("five-horned face") is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America. Fossils of this animal were first discovered in 1921, but the genus was named in 1923 when its ty ...

'' and '' Bisticeratops''). Other herbivores included

ankylosaurs Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the clade Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with Armour (zoology), armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short ...

and

pachycephalosaurs Pachycephalosauria (; from Ancient Greek, Greek παχυκεφαλόσαυρος for 'thick headed lizards') is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs. Along with Ceratopsia, it makes up the clade Marginocephalia. With the exception of two species, m ...

. Meat-eaters included ''

Tyrannosaurus ''Tyrannosaurus'' () is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The type species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' ( meaning 'king' in Latin), often shortened to ''T. rex'' or colloquially t-rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It lived througho ...

'', ''

Daspletosaurus ''Daspletosaurus'' ( ; meaning "frightful lizard") is a genus of tyrannosaurid dinosaur that lived in Laramidia between about 77 and 74.4 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period. The genus ''Daspletosaurus'' contains three named ...

'', and ''

Ornithomimus ''Ornithomimus'' (; "bird mimic") is a genus of ornithomimid theropod dinosaurs from the Campanian and Maastrichtian ages of Late Cretaceous Western North America. ''Ornithomimus'' was a swift, bipedal dinosaur which fossil evidence indicates wa ...

''. Small mammals, including

multituberculates Multituberculata (commonly known as multituberculates, named for the multiple tubercles of their teeth) is an extinct order of rodent-like mammals with a fossil record spanning over 130 million years. They first appeared in the Middle Jurassic, a ...

marsupials Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a ...

, and

placental mammals Placental mammals ( infraclass Placentalia ) are one of the three extant subdivisions of the class Mammalia, the other two being Monotremata and Marsupialia. Placentalia contains the vast majority of extant mammals, which are partly distinguish ...

, were present. After the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction, the dinosaurs were gone, replaced mostly by small mammals. Turtles, crocodiles, and lizards also survived. The multituberculates were much less important. The Ojo Alamo Formation grades into the Nacimiento Formation, which is candy-striped white and black beds of shale and sandstone with occasional thin beds of coal and thin red or green beds representing ''

paleosol In Earth science, geoscience, paleosol (''palaeosol'' in Great Britain and Australia) is an ancient soil that formed in the past. The definition of the term in geology and paleontology is slightly different from its use in soil science. In geo ...

s'', preserved ancient soil surfaces. These are assigned to the Arroyo Chijuillita Member. These were deposited in a river system with a cooler and drier but very stable climate. The beds contain fossils of the earliest animals of the Paleocene, and define the

Puercan The Puercan North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), spanning the interval from 66,000,000 to 63,300,000 years BP lasting . It is usua ...

and

Torrejonian The Torrejonian North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 63,300,000 to 60,200,000 years BP lasting . It is usually ...

North American Land Mammal Stages on the geologic time scale. These fossils record a time when the mammal population rapidly changed, either from rapid evolution following the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event or from new populations of mammals migrating into the area. The area became part of the western side of the

San Juan Basin The San Juan Basin is a geologic structural basin located near the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States. The basin covers 7,500 square miles and resides in northwestern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, and parts of Utah a ...

which formed during the

Laramide orogeny The Laramide orogeny was a time period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous, 80 to 70 million years ago, and ended 55 to 35 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the o ...

and tilted the beds to their present 5-degree angle to the northeast. The badlands themselves formed quite recently, between 2800 and 5600 thousand years ago. Hoodoos formed where resistant rock protected underlying pinnacles of softer rock.

Wildlife

A small variety of wildlife can be found in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, including

cottontail rabbit Cottontail rabbits are in the ''Sylvilagus'' genus, which is in the family Leporidae. They are found in the Americas. Most ''Sylvilagus'' species have stub tails with white undersides that show when they retreat, giving them their characterist ...

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...

badger Badgers are medium-sized short-legged omnivores in the superfamily Musteloidea. Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions for fossorial activity rather than by the ...

porcupine Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp Spine (zoology), spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two Family (biology), families of animals: the Old World porcupines of the family Hystricidae, and the New ...

, and

prairie dog Prairie dogs (genus ''Cynomys'') are herbivorous burrowing Marmotini, ground squirrels native to the grasslands of North America. There are five recognized species of prairie dog: black-tailed prairie dog, black-tailed, white-tailed prairie dog ...

. Bird species include

pinyon jay The pinyon jay (''Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus'') is a species of jay, and is the only member of the genus ''Gymnorhinus''. Native to Western North America, the species ranges from central Oregon to northern Baja California, and eastward as far a ...

raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...

quail Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New ...

dove Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. ...

ferruginous hawk The ferruginous hawk (''Buteo regalis'') is a large bird of prey and belongs to the broad-winged buteo hawks. An old colloquial name is ferrugineous rough-leg, due to its similarity to the closely related rough-legged hawk (''B. lagopus''). The ...

prairie falcon The prairie falcon (''Falco mexicanus'') is a medium-sized Falconiformes, falcon found in Western North America. A separate species from the peregrine falcon, with which it shares some visual similarities, the prairie falcon is, essentially, an ...

, and

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of pr ...

Lizard Lizard is the common name used for all Squamata, squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most Island#Oceanic isla ...

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

tarantula Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,100 species have been identified, with 166 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although ...

, and

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the Order (biology), order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of Chela (organ), grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward cur ...

also live here.

Recreation

Recreational activities in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness include hiking, camping, wildlife viewing, photography, and horseback riding. Campfires are forbidden in the Wilderness.

References

External links

Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness - Photos, Videos, and Maps

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20160303193947/http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=wildView&wname=Bisti%2FDe-Na-Zin Wilderness.net: the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness
New Mexico Audubon Society - Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness wildlife

'Bisti/De-Na-Zin Hiker'': Maps, Geology Guide and Suggested Hikes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bisti De-Na-Zin Wilderness Badlands of the United States Rock formations of New Mexico Protected areas of San Juan County, New Mexico Wilderness areas of New Mexico Bureau of Land Management areas in New Mexico Geography of the Navajo Nation Landforms of San Juan County, New Mexico Protected areas established in 1984 1984 establishments in New Mexico

Prehistory

Wildlife

Recreation

See also

References

External links