Find out about the history buried beneath us, at your library
Donna Ramos
Creatures that our family has located on our red land property just south of Abilene, in their fossilized bone state, range from diplocaulus (early amphibian), to captorhinis (early reptile), the varanops, and the now extinct line of diadectes (oldest known land dwelling herbivore).
Most of these finds have been very significant in paleontology and have been studied in labs around the world. Luckily our immediate area has an exposure of the Permian Vale Formation, dated at approximately 270 million years old by geologists.
The land at that time was swampy and would became arid. In his book “When Life Nearly Died: the Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time,” Michael J. Benton explains how these ancient creatures were annihilated to leave only their bones for us to re-discover.