DOINews: BLM New Mexico Hosts Aspiring Native American Paleontologists

The Bureau of Land Management in New Mexico recently hosted a group of Native American college students with paleontological interests.

Native Explorers or NE is a non-profit organization based in Oklahoma City that provides educational programs and promotes partnerships that increase the number of Native Americans in science and medicine. Educational programs include the Native Explorers Program at Oklahoma State University. The NEP is designed around the disciplines of anatomy and vertebrate paleontology to provide an array of hands-on, off-campus activities to introduce selected students to the scientific method and traditional ways. NEP's ambition is to partner with every federally recognized tribe in the United States, as well as every educational institution interested in achieving these same goals.

Students from the Native Explorers Program gather for a photo after the dig at the Sombrillo Area of Critical Environmental Concern.

Students from the NEP recently visited BLM lands under the administration of the Taos Field Office. Under the direction of permitted paleontologists from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science and the BLM-New Mexico regional paleontologist, the students located and collected a number of vertebrate fossils from within the Sombrillo Area of Critical Environmental Concern and La Puebla ACEC.

The fossils discovered by the NEP group were found within the Tesuque Formation, which dates back to about 14.5 million years. This formation is a sedimentary unit filling most of the Española basin and preserves the fossil remains of the many animals that lived in the area during the Miocene Epoch. The Tesuque Formation comprises conglomerate, sandstone, mudrock, and limestone of nonmarine origin, with numerous interbedded ashfall-tuff layers. This formation was explored extensively by paleontologists from the American Museum of Natural History from1924-1964, when Childs Frick sent fossil-collection crews to northern New Mexico.

Students from the Native Explorers Program dig for fossils at the Sombrillo Sombrillo Area of Critical Environmental Concern.

The NEP students found everything from a small extinct dog, to horses and camels. The fossils they found will be curated in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque, and will provide the BLM with additional information that will enable greater protection of these resources.

Above is an early horse jaw found by one of the students from the Native Explorer Program.

This was also an opportunity for students to meets archaeologists and biologists from the BLM's Taos Field Office and the New Mexico State Office so they could be introduced to protocols for the management of natural resources and the preservation and protection of historic sites. They also got to learn about possible career opportunities and internships with the agency, making this a win-win for both entities.

By: BLM-New Mexico
June 6, 2014