The next phase, study and analysis, is never concluded. Information concerning the thousands of specimens collected in the monument is permanently maintained. With these data paleontologists can analyze various aspects of a fossil population. Their research enables them, finally, to recreate scenes from the past. Such collection efforts have provided researchers with scientifically significant samples, which open up intriguing avenues for research.
Paleontologists can now detect subtle shifts in the composition of ecosystems through time.
Researchers have identified and studied some ancient soils preserved in the John Day Basin and, from a distance of millions of years, are able to gauge former climatic conditions such as temperature. Sedimentologists map the orientation of bones in a Clarno Formation quarry, and thereby plot the eddies, backwaters, and gravel bars of a river that flowed 37 million years ago. Paleobotanists determine the rate at which plant communities evolved. A biostratigrapher dates the last known occurrence of a fossil primate in North America. Studies such as these combine to give us richly detailed pictures of the past.