![]() The shells of the cetaceans would have fallen to the bottom of the waterway, becoming lodged in the mud, which, through the chemical process of decomposition, would harden like cement, fossilizing the invertebrates and creating solid casings of their shells. It is currently believed that they may have been “similar in behavior to today’s salmon,” returning to designated breeding areas year after year to spawn, only for the adults to die and a new life-cycle to begin. Most of these were invertebrates, soft-bodied creatures protected by a hard outer shell, like the giant ammonites (Placenticeras meeki), whose shell could reach a diameter of 3 feet and whose long tentacles would trail behind them. According to Wyatt, the high ridges were once 300 to 500 feet under water and were a theorized mating site for ancient sea creatures. Over two dozen hikers met at the Ammonite Site trailhead for an introduction to the area’s natural history by Bill Wyatt, staff archaeologist, “dubbed paleontologist,” from the Kremmling Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). And yet, it’s evidence was recently seen by a group of Grand County Library explorers, who had the opportunity to examine, touch, and search for Cretaceous-age fossils at the world’s largest Giant Ammonite find, the Kremmling Cretaceous Ammonite Locality. When hiking above West Grand’s Town of Kremmling, gazing across the sagebrush covered landscape and arid steppe-like topography, it can be hard to believe that the area was once submerged by a great inland sea, the Western Interior Seaway, which stretched from the Arctic Circle to the Gulf of Mexico some 100 million years ago. Over two dozen explorers joined Heidi McNinch of the Grand County Library District and guides from the Bureau of Land Management for a hike to Kremmling’s 72.5 million year old fossil ridge, the Kremmling Cretaceous Ammonite Locality. Photos by Marissa Lorenz
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