Thus the fossil beds are continually canvassed according to cyclic prospecting schedules. Sites that weather rapidly are revisited more frequently. Prospecting conducted by the monument's staff results in the collection of hundreds of specimens each year. This information, as well as that gained as the fossil is stabilized, prepared, and studied, is entered into national museum files. Such comprehensive collection efforts provide researchers with scientifically significant samples, which open up intriguing avenues for research.
Paleontologists can now detect subtle shifts in the composition of the 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 in significant detail. 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, representing many scientific disciplines, combine to give us richly detailed pictures of the past.