Despite being one of the most well-known and visited attractions in the United States,
Grand Canyon National Park still has some surprises in store for visitors.
The Grand Canyon may appear to be an ideal location for searching for dinosaur bones,
but none have ever been discovered there, and for good reason.
The rock that makes up the canyon walls is far older than the dinosaurs - up to a billion
years older in certain cases - but the canyon itself did not develop until the dinosaurs
were long gone.
While the dinosaurs may have missed out on seeing the Grand Canyon, numerous other fossils
have been discovered that indicate other species lived in the area.
They range from 1.2-billion-year-old marine fossils to relatively recent land creatures
that died in canyon caves around 10,000 years ago.
With each visit, this natural wonder has piqued the interest of experts and tourists alike.
A group of scientists recently conducted research on the Grand Canyon.
This investigation resulted in a disturbing discovery that could change our understanding
of the historic structure.
What was this finding, and how would it influence the history of the Grand Canyon?
Join us as we investigate scientists harrowing find in the Grand Canyon.
Did you know that prehistoric life forms have been discovered in the Grand Canyon?
The discovery of these living forms began with the discovery of a boulder that had fallen
over a cliff.
Alan Krill, a geologist, was trekking with his students along the Bright Angel Trail
in Grand Canyon National Park.
On this trek, Krill found a strange rock with marks on it.
It was a fallen boulder on the trail side with what appeared to be footprint markings.
Krill visiting from Norway photographed these markings and submitted them to his old friend
and colleague Stephen Rowland, a paleontologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
When the photographs were inspected, it was revealed that the Krill had discovered fossilized
footprints.
According to the study, the prints could be 313 million years old, making the fossil trace
the oldest vertebrate footprint ever discovered in the Grand Canyon.
It was also the first evidence of vertebrate animals wandering in sand dunes.
This ancient footprint was thought to have belonged to an Amniote, a hard-shelled egg-laying
animal.
So, how was the footprint preserved until it was discovered?
The boulder containing these footprints weighed 100 pounds and had been broken away from the
Manakacha Formation.
The Manakacha Formation is a massive Sandstone that dates back 314 million years.
When the preserved footprints became moist, they were covered in sand.
The sand had an important role in preserving the fossil marks for millions of years.
These Footprints were inspected, and the researchers saw two distinct sets of tracks visible on
the surface of the rock.
The presence of a detailed geologic map of the strata along the Bright Angel Trail, together
with previous studies of the age of the Manakacha Formation, allowed the researchers to pin
down the age of the tracks quite precisely to 313 +/- 0.
5 million years.
As Rowland proceeded further into the investigation of the footprints, he noticed that the fossil
traces show two different reptile species crossing over the spot in a diagonal direction.
Of interest to the research team was the distinct arrangement of footprints.
The researchers’ reconstruction of this animal’s footfall sequence reveals a distinctive
gait called a lateral sequence walk, in which the legs on one side of the animal move in
succession, the rear leg followed by the foreleg, alternating with the movement of the two legs
on the opposite side.
Although experts are still unsure if the footprints were made by two different reptile creatures
or by the same animal on various occasions.
This is due to the fact that the second batch of tracks was evaluated and found to move
slightly faster than the first.
Whatever the case, this discovery is ground-breaking because the Bright Angel Trail tracks show
that lateral sequence gait was used extremely early in the history of vertebrate animals.
The discovery also represents the earliest evidence of Amniotes dwelling in sand dunes,
dating back at least eight million years.
Despite the theories surrounding the findings, some experts believe Rowland's study on the
footprints may be controversial.
Mark Nebel, the Grand Canyon's paleontology program manager, is one such scientist.
According to Nebel, there is a lot of controversy in the scientific community about interpreting
tracks, determining the age of rocks, and determining what kind of animal made these
traces.
Regardless, Nebel applauds the discovery, especially given the boulder was in plain
sight and many people missed it.
The Grand Canyon is missing almost a billion years' worth of rocks.
For decades, experts have been concerned about this phenomenon.
The Grand Canyon is proof of history through rocks, with each layer representing a different
period on Earth.
How would it seem to realize that rock layers dating back over a billion years are missing
from the geological record of the Grand Canyon?
The anomaly, dubbed "The Great Unconformity," was discovered in 1869 by geologist John Wesley
Powell.
As he travelled down the Colorado River, he noticed the unusual gap.
Geologists were able to date these layers years later, confirming The Great Unconformity.
Rocks with ages ranging from 1.4 to 1.8 billion years old were discovered to be in close proximity
to rocks with ages of 520 million years old, which led to the discovery of this information
by experts.
So, what happened to the missing rocks within this odd gap?
Even scientists proposed an explanation for the phenomena in research, claiming that the
Grand Canyon's geologic past is more intricate than we realize.
Some portions of the Grand Canyon may have changed in a variety of ways over millennia.
This transition could have resulted in some rocks being carried away into the ocean.
In order to determine the cause of this anomaly, the team devised some analytical procedures
for their research.
Using thermochronology, they were able to piece together the lost history of The Great
Unconformity.
Thermochronology measures the heat stored in a rock using a variety of chemical analysis
techniques.
The findings of this study show that some events may have generated the unusual gap
in the geological record.
The event was thought to have occurred alongside the violent breakup of the supercontinent
Rodinia, which occurred between 633 and 750 million years ago.
This must have been a tumultuous time for Earth's tectonics, as it altered and imbalanced
rock layers.
Furthermore, the materials evaluated by the study suggest that the Grand Canyon endured
different geological deformations than the canyon's eastern side.
They determined that the basement rock in the Canyon's western side seems to have risen
to the surface around 700 million years ago.
However, toward the east, half of the same stone layers are buried behind several kilometers
of sediment.
Although the findings of this study are insufficient to adjudicate the case of the great unconformity
once and for all, the team feels that they are a giant step forward in the attempt to
understand the mystery underlying it.
The Colorado River is on the verge of drying up.
The Colorado River is one of the Grand Canyon's distinctive features, rising from the Rocky
Mountains and flowing south for 1500 miles.
The river flows through waterfalls, deserts, and gorges before entering the Gulf of California
via the enormous Delta in Mexico.
As it flows through the Grand Canyon, the river is used for kayak rides, canoe excursions,
and raft rides, providing Grand Canyon visitors with excitement throughout their visit.
Unfortunately, experts have determined that if necessary action is not taken, the river
will soon dry up.
Environmentalists think the drought began when western governments began to divide the
water by building dams and diverting the flow to cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San
Diego, as well as other rapidly rising towns.
The Glen Canyon Dam is one of these dams.
Engineers may regard the dams and diverting of the Colorado River as an accomplishment,
but environmentalists believe it has been nothing but a risk to the river, particularly
in the last decade.
Since draughts become a worry in the southwest, the river has been running low for some time.
Despite the fact that the river flows freely in the Grand Canyon, boaters may still be
spotted cruising across Nevada and Arizona's Lake Mead.
However, at the Lake's Edge, clear lines in the rock walls demonstrate that the water
level is much lower than it formerly was.
Although climate change is one of the explanations, environmentalists feel dams and river diversion,
particularly the Glen Canyon Dam, are key factors.
The dam, which is located along the Colorado River, is more than 50 years old.
It is the moving machine that gave birth to Lake Powell, and while it is used for hydropower,
the water levels are too low to generate any.
If water levels continue to fall, water will be unable to flow downriver due to the dam's
location.
If this occurs, it will have a detrimental influence on water supplies in Arizona, California,
Nevada, and even Mexico.
As a result, environmental organizations are urging governments to invest in reconfiguring
the Glen Canyon Dam's plumbing system.
If the dam's technology is updated, there will be more room for water to flow through.
Hopefully, this is done soon before the situation worsens.
The limestone cliffs harbor hundreds of passages that offer glimpses into the distant past.
The majority of the canyons' limestone cliffs have caves embedded in them.
The Grand Canyon, as we know it, has several caves within it, with the insides filled with
various remains of plants and animals, providing us with insight into the region's past during
the Ice Age.
The caves also vary in size, with some being so tight that you have to enter on all fours,
while others are large enough to have a party in them.
In any case, these caves have provided an ideal habitat for bats, birds, wood rats,
now-extinct mountain goats, and sloths.
It was found that the bones of some of these animals had been preserved extraordinarily
well due to the bone-dry conditions in which they were found.
The well-preserved fossils provided researchers with access to forty thousand years of history
and knowledge of what life was like during the Ice Age.
When the scientists proceeded to investigate these historical markers, they began with
a Rampart Cave in the canyon's far western side.
Several dung balls were discovered spread around the floor by scientists.
At first glance, one might think they were excreted recently, although they were produced
by a 500-pound Shasta ground sloth that had been extinct for almost ten thousand years.
When the dung was tested using radiocarbon dating, the sloth dung deposits were found
to be between 40 000 and 11 000 years old.
The discovery of old matter in the dung also assisted scientists in determining the animal's
eating patterns.
Pollen that drifted through the air was consumed by the animals, and it also offers important
information about the regional plant community.
There were also other skulls recovered, including extinct mountain goat skulls and mummified
birds.
This expedition was led by Steve Emslie, who is a professor of biology at the University
of North Carolina and an expert on birds that lived during the Ice Age.
He found some birds in the caves and was able to study them.
According to his chemical analysis, the Grand Canyon birds were most likely consuming megafauna
as a delicacy.
However, the megafauna became extinct, which could have eliminated the birds as well.
Let us know what you think about these new Grand Canyon discoveries in the comments section
below.