Walking Through the Cretaceous Sea
Just after our morning hike through the Grapevine Hills, we still could not remove ourselves from this life-changing adventure. As Katie and I began our drive out of the park toward the Guadalupe Mountains, we noticed an opportunity to veer off the main road to an overlook with various prehistoric facts. Why not one last history lesson before an official departure? To our surprise, we not only learned about the dinosaurs that once dominated this space but had the opportunity to gaze closely at fossils from the very lands we hiked across. We even were allowed to touch the femur of an Alamosaurus!
For all the novice dino-fans like myself, the Alamosaurus was the last of the large land dinosaurs—which lasted in North America until the Cretaceous period. It grew to 80 feet long and weighed approximately 65,000 pounds. And this was only the femur!
We spent over an hour exploring this outdoor exhibit and soaked up as much incredible history as we could.
Born and raised in Houston, I had the fortunate opportunities and access to larger-than-life museums at my disposal and still love visiting them as an adult—but there is nothing quite like learning and observing at the source. It was when I read the sign “A Volcanic Landscape” I learned the grounds we decided to setup camp, the Chisos Basin, was once a violent volcano mountain. Already, I found the sky-scraping mountains to be larger than life, but I was humbled once more to learn just how small my world has been.
It is incredible to think life of the sea once thrived on this now beautiful dry landscape.
In fact, most of Texas was submerged under the Western Interior Seaway.
Left behind were fossils in the sedimentary rocks deposited during this time.
To give us better context of just how ginormous these creatures were, the park allowed us to approach and touch some of these well-preserved fossils. Katie was nice enough to pose next to the fossilized wing of a pterodactyl.
Throughout this site, there were a couple of signs that stood out to me more than the rest. The first covered the mass extinction that took place over 60 million years ago and the theories that surround that cause. I can’t remember a time when mammals were the subject among dinosaurs, yet this site at Big Bend National Park implies that mammals possibly thrived and survived, along with small birds, fish, and more Due to their small nature modern mammals were selected to flourish, eventually enlarging to the size they (including us) are today. Evolution could not allow for the growth in the mass of mammals during the Cretaceous Age as they would have become more accessible prey to the roaming and flying giants.
The second sign marks the area where a paleontologist from The University of Texas-Austin uncovered fossil remains and his attempt to educate the public while continuing his exploration. I was inspired by his story because it displays our yearning to know more. As we further our discoveries, I hope we are open to the possibility that we’ve been wrong all along. That’s what science is all about, right?
After exploring the Fossil Discovery Exhibit, we finally parted for Guadalupe Mountains to hike the highest elevation in Texas. I realize I began my story about our adventure out of chronological order, but I appreciate you bearing with me as I get back into writer mode.
