Here at canyon bottom,
We reach our destination.
Back in time,
300 million years,
Into the period Carboniferous,
With its limestone fossiliferous...
Fossils preserved in this limestone are the mineralized remains of creatures that lived in an ancient sea just off the western coast of the ancestral Rocky Mountains. Some of these creatures are readily recognizable, shelled clam-like brachiopods and crinoid stems stacked like poker chips. Some look completely foreign to the amateur eye, just begging further exploration and study. Is that some sort of coral I see down below? Is that what all these tubular red masses are...or are they sponges? How 'bout that white rod with the head? What's that?!
What is to be gained by studying such ancient remnants? Clues to our own animal ancestry? True, we humans are related to these old sea guys. But our common ancestor, that of mammal and coral, preceded this time of the Carboniferous by at least another billion years. A billion years. Imagine that! It wasn't that long ago, just a few generations, we humans thought our history extended back a mere six thousand years or so. We were very far off the mark for sure. Yet advances in our understanding have come correspondingly quick.
