Cultural Heritage and Paleontology

Center Content: 

New Mexico Featured Partners

Western North America is famous for its dinosaur fossils.  Many of these come from the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico.  Most of these specimens were collected in the early part of the 20th century and the resulting specimens were shipped to Museums far from New Mexico.  However, since the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS) opened in 1986, newly discovered specimens have been found and kept within the State.  The NMMNHS is the designated repository for paleontological resources found on BLM-administered lands in New Mexico.

In addition, the Las Cruces Museum of Nature and Science works with the BLM and the NMMNHS to curate tracks that have been removed from Prehistoric Trackways National Monument. 

The skull of the Bisti Beast

  • New Mexico museum of Natural History and Science: As the designated repository for paleontological resources found on BLM-administered lands in New Mexico the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS) is home to several remarkable finds discovered removed from BLM lands in the State.  These discoveries include the fossilized remains of an adult and baby Pentaceratops, a five-horned dinosaur that is one of the largest, if not the largest horned dinosaur that ever lived.  The NMMNHS also hosts the Bistahieversor—affectionately known as the Bisti Beast—a 30-foot tyrannosaur that roamed the Earth around 74 million years ago.  The Bisti Beast was found in the BLM Farmington Field Office’s Bisti Wilderness Area.  
  • Las Cruces Museum of Nature and Science: The Prehistoric Trackways National Monument was established in 2009 to conserve, protect, and enhance the unique and nationally-important paleontological, scientific, educational, scenic, and recreational resources and values of the Robledo Mountains in southern New Mexico.  The Monument includes a major deposit of Paleozoic Era fossilized footprint megatrackways within approximately 5,280 acres.  To preserve them for ongoing and future scientific study, some trackway fossils have been removed and transported to the Las Cruces Museum of Nature and Science, making up the Jerry MacDonald Paleozoic Trackways Collection.  Anyone interested in viewing these fascinating tracks can do so by visiting the Museum, which offers public tours of their Geoscience Collection, including the Trackways Collection, by reservation.  The Las Cruces Museum of Nature and Science also has a 30 foot (Over 13 species of track makers) and a 15 foot trackway on display.