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Green River Fossil Bat, Crayfish, Turtles
Green River Fossils: Bats, Crayfish, Horse, Turtles
Introduction
The Green River Formation has yielded some of the best-preserved and oldest fossil bats ever found. It has also produced a variety of other unusual fossils such as the turtles, crayfish and horses. The photos shown below are by the National Park Service - Fossil Butte National Monument.
| This 1.7 meter (5 foot 6 inch) softshell turtle is one of the largest turtles from Fossil Lake. During the Eocene, trionychid turtles reached maximum size. Today, North America's largest softshell turtles reach 51 cm (20 inches) in length. National Park Service photo. |
| This ten-inch-long turtle belongs to the Baenidae family, an extinct North American group. Shell characteristics, a very long tail and recurved claws suggest they were strong bottom walking turtles. National Park Service photo. |
| Most mammal fossils consist of teeth and bone fragments. This fully-articulated early horse is an extremely rare find and to date, the only horse found in the Green River Formation. National Park Service photo. |
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| This 5.5 inch long bat is the most primitive bat known. Claws on each finger of its wings indicate it was probably an agile climber and crawled along and under tree branches searching for insects. National Park Service photo. |
| Crayfish lived in the shallow, near-shore water of Fossil Lake. Procambarus is known only from the Eocene deposits of Fossil Lake. Its closest living relative, Austrocambarus, is found in Mexico. National Park Service photo. |
| Heliobatus radians had small teeth for crushing snails and other mollusks and barbed spines on the tail for defense. National Park Service photo. |
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