page_title: Paleontology in New Mexico
section_title: Prehistory
hierarchical_section_title: Paleontology in New Mexico / Prehistory
caption_attribution_description: NPS Photo, Public Domain
context_page_description: Paleontology in New Mexico refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of New Mexico. The fossil record of New Mexico is exceptionally complete and spans almost the entire stratigraphic column. More than 3,300 different kinds of fossil organisms have been found in the state. Of these more than 700 of these were new to science and more than 100 of those were type species for new genera. During the early Paleozoic, southern and western New Mexico were submerged by a warm shallow sea that would come to be home to creatures including brachiopods, bryozoans, cartilaginous fishes, corals, graptolites, nautiloids, placoderms, and trilobites. During the Ordovician the state was home to algal reefs up to 300 feet high. During the Carboniferous, a richly vegetated island chain emerged from the local sea. Coral reefs formed in the state's seas while terrestrial regions of the state dried and were home to sand dunes. Local wildlife included Edaphosaurus, Ophiacodon, and Sphenacodon.
  Triassic New Mexico had a seasonal climate and was home to a richly vegetated flood plain where early dinosaurs such as Coelophysis lived.
context_section_description: No Precambrian fossils are known from New Mexico, so the state's fossil record does not begin until the Paleozoic. During the Late Cambrian, the southern third of New Mexico was a marine environment. This habitat was home to a few kinds of brachiopods, a species of graptolite, and trilobites. Local trace fossils include bore marks left by ancient worms. The southern third of New Mexico remained submerged by the sea throughout the entire ensuing Ordovician. More than two hundred kinds of invertebrate lived in Ordovician New Mexico. Groups present included brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, gastropods, nautiloids, pelecypods, sponges, and trilobites. Algae made reefs up to three hundred feet high. Marine conditions in southern New Mexico persisted on through the Silurian. At least 66 kinds of invertebrates made their home here. Groups familiar from the Ordovician, including brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, gastropods, a nautiloid, and a pelecypod, were among them. Marine conditions were not as predominant in Devonian New Mexico, nevertheless the marine Sly Gap and Percha Formations of the state's southwest provide the best fossils of the age. Over two hundred kinds of Devonian marine life lived and died in the region. The familiar invertebrate groups including bryozoans, cephalopods, corals, gastropods, and pelecypods were all present. Notably these were joined by vertebrates, including placoderms from two different suborders, cartilaginous fishes and more. Although the Percha and Sly Gap are the same age, they don't share even a single individual species in common.
  An island chain began forming in New Mexico's shallow sea during the Carboniferous. Areas still submerged were home to brachiopods and clams. The islands themselves were thickly vegetated with forests and swamps. Into the Mississippian, crinoids and other fossil life built huge bioherms. The local Mississippian biodiversity included at least 6 kinds of blastoids 202 brachiopods, 33 bryozoans, 57 corals, 85 crinoids, 22 gastropods, 7 nautiloids, 8 pelecypods, 9 trilobites, and others including foraminiferans and starfishes. On land primitive plants grew in New Mexico. The state's Mississippian flora of New Mexico included horsetails and scale trees. Pennsylvanian New Mexico experienced both marine and terrestrial conditions over time. Marine life included more than 157 species of brachiopods, 41 bryozoans, 34 cephalopods, 34 corals, 118 foraminiferans, 87 gastropods, 25 ostracods and 85 pelecypods. Exceptional brachiopod specimens from this time still retain traces of their shell colorations. The foraminiferans were present in "tremendous abundance", with the most common varieties being fusulinids. Other important fossils provide paleoecological evidence for Pennsylvanian parasitism. 60 different kind of plants grew above the surface of New Mexico's Pennsylvanian waters. Early in the ensuing Permian period the local climate dried significantly. Local rivers dried up and fields of sand dunes took their place. Sea levels dropped and the water became extremely salty. During the middle part of the Permian the seas returned to a more typical state. At this time a huge reef system began to form at El Capitan in the southeastern part of the state. Most of New Mexico was under seawater during the ensuing Permian. More than 300 kinds of marine life have been discovered in the state. On land, at least 20 kinds of plants including early conifers, horsetails, and seed ferns grew. New Mexico's terrestrial environments were inhabited by creatures such as Aerosaurus, Edaphosaurus, Limnoscelis, Ophiacodon, and Sphenacodon. Many of these creatures' footprints were preserved in mudflats that are contained within the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument in Las Cruces.
   
  220 million years ago, during the Late Triassic deposition of the Dockum Group, eastern New Mexico was a basin receiving sediments carried downhill by streams and rivers. These sediments were probably trapped locally, burying the remains that would compose the area's fossil record, instead of making their way to the
caption: Restoration with scale bar, made for Petrified Forest National Park.
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