The Sombrillo Area of Critical Environmental Concern is an Essential Area for Paleontologists
In 1988 8,865 acres of the Nambé Badlands were designated[1]Resource Management Plan, March 1987, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Albuquerque District, Taos Resource Area, BLM-NM-PT-87-006-4410 as the Sombrillo Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) to protect the internationally significant paleontological resources (fossils) found in the area.
Paleontologists later found additional fossil resources north of the 1988 Sombrillo ACEC boundaries. These findings, and identification of cultural sites, resulted in the BLM expanding the Sombrillo ACEC to 18,190 acres in 2010[2]Draft Taos Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement, June 3, 2010, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Albuquerque District, Taos Resource Area, … Continue reading.
Sedimentary outcrops in the area have resulted in important discoveries of Miocene vertebrate fossils by scientists for over 140 years.
Many important fossil discoveries of extinct mammals and other vertebrates have been made in the Nambé Badlands area.
Please note that fossils in the Nambé Badlands and Sombrillo ACEC are protected under the Paleontological Resource Protection Act.
Fossils of the extinct species Sthenictis a large member of the mustelid (weasel) family have been found in the Sombrillo Area of Critical Environmental Concern[3]Phil Gensler, Gary Morgan, Scott Aby, and Garrett R. Williamson, “New Additions to the Miocene Vertebrate Fauna of the Tesuque Formation, Española Basin, New Mexico, in Paleontology on Public … Continue reading. Photo credit, Ryan Somma, Creative Commons license.
Paleontologists Have Made Significant Discoveries in the Sombrillo Area of Critical Environmental Concern
The prominent scientist Edward Drinker Cope collected fossils from the Miocene epoch (23.0 to 5.3 million years ago (Ma)). Cope’s team collected fossils from 53 vertebrates in the Sombrillo ACEC area in 1874. Cope’s findings here included 32 new species of mammals, land tortoises, and a bird. The fossil records he discovered here are still recognized today as important findings[4]Osborn, Henry Fairfield [1931]. “Cope: Master Naturalist: Life and Letters of Edward Drinker Cope, With a Bibliography of His Writings”. Manchester, New Hampshire: Ayer Company … Continue reading
Paleontologists from the Childs Frick Laboratory of the American Museum of Natural History conducted long-term surveys of the Sombrillo ACEC area from 1924-1964. This research has resulted in an unparalleled collection numbering in the thousands of specimens.
In the 1988 BLM Resource Management Plan the Sombrillo area (Nambé Badlands) was designated as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) for paleontological resources[5]Taos Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement, 2010, BLM/NM/PL-10-01-1610, Chapter 3, pages 224-225
Beginning in 2008 and continuing to the present, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History (NMMNH) and the BLM have collaborated on a survey of Miocene vertebrate fossils in the BLM Sombrillo ACEC (a significant portion of the Nambé Badlands).
Three superposed members of the Tesuque Formation have produced vertebrate faunas:
- Nambé Member: Nambé Fauna, from the Herningfordian North American Land Mammal Age (NALMA), and late early Miocene eras, 16-17 Mega-annum (Ma), (one Ma = 1 million years)
- Skull Ridge Member: Skull Ridge Fauna, early Barstovian NALMA, early medial Miocene, 15-16 Ma.
- Pojoaque Member: Pojoaque Fauna, late Barstovian NALMA, meidal Miocene, 12.5-15 Ma.
Native American paleontologists and students with the Native Explorers Program (NEP) located and collected a number of vertebrate fossils from within the Sombrillo ACEC and the La Puebla ACEC. 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[6]U.S. Department of the Interior, DOINews: “BLM New Mexico Hosts Aspiring Native American Paleontologists“, Jun 6, 2014 (edited Sept. 5, 2019)
Paleontological field research continues today in the Sombrillo ACEC.
Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897), an American paleontologist was one of the first great vertebrate fossil researchers in the United States. Cope first collected fossils of vertebrates from the Miocene Epoch (24.0 – 5.3 million years ago ) in the Nambé Badlands area in 1874. His research there led to the discovery of 32 new species of mammals, land tortoises, and a bird. Copes’s significant findings in the Nambé Badlands are still recognized today.
The fossils researched in the Sombrillo Area of Critical Environmental Concern consist mostly of vertebrates that lived during the Miocene Epoch (23.03 – 5.33 Ma), which occurred during the Neogene Period (23.03-2.58 Ma), which in turn was in the Cenozoic Era (66.0 Ma – present), inside the Phanerozoic Eon (541 Ma – present).
Important Fossil Discoveries in the Nambé Badlands
Aelurdon
An extinct canine that lived 16 million years ago, “hyena-like” with bone-crushing teeth.
A drawing of the Aelurodon species (extinct) that lived in the Nambé Badlands area 16 million years ago.
Fossils of the Aelurodon (Canidae family) have been found in the Sombrillo ACEC. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
