Posted on 09/08/2013 4:43:55 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
As the rush intensifies to find new reserves of fossil fuels, digs throughout the West are yielding another byproduct -- fossils.
Oilfield workers in western Oklahoma have unearthed deposits of fossils containing extinct species of camel and horse, along with as-yet-uncounted other animals, while excavating a new well, Oklahoma Citys The Oklahoman reports.
An earthmover uncovered the fossilized bones in July after removing 6 meters of soil in the state-run Packsaddle Wildlife Management Area.
Paleontologists brought to the scene identified 13 separate fossil deposits, which have tentatively been dated as far back as 5 million to 12 million years.
Among the identifiable remains so far are the skull a small, primitive horse and the bones of a camel -- a mammal that actually originated in the very ancient American West, according to Kyle Davies, a fossil preparator with the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History...
"It actually shows that North America was the origin point for camels, and they spread out from here."
The fossils date to the Miocene epoch, a particularly formative period for the Ancient West that spanned from about 23 million to 5.3 million years ago. This is when the massive Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountain ranges first formed, and when what are now the Great Plains sat as their own continent, with life that would seem familiar -- but misplaced -- compared to todays Western biota.
(Excerpt) Read more at westerndigs.org ...
re: “CAMELS. In 1836 Maj. George H. Crosman urged the United States War Department to use camels in Indian campaigns in Florida because of the animals ability to keep on the move with a minimum of food and water.
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/quc01"
The same thought crossed my mind, the experimental use by the Army of camels in the Southwest. There are even still camel races in Virginia City, Nevada that go back to that time period. I wondered if these oil guys had inadvertently run across the bones of one those camels.
The legend of “The Tall Buffalo” is well known throughout the Indian tribes of Oklahoma. They are also known as the CHEE-SHA-NISH which roughly translates to “Evil Tempered Spitting Horses”.
Oklahoma looks like an office with cubicles! Who knew?
later
Thank you very much. I find it odd how imprecise stories are today, sending readers to Google, how everything is in terms that of region.
Thank you for answering my question.
North of Cheyenne, out in Roger Mills County.
The Packsaddle Bridge -- which carries US 283 over the South Canadian -- is the longest in the state, approaching one mile in length.
Thx, okie.
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