It's National Fossil Day and what better way to celebrate than to learn about the amazing fossils found at one of EP Minerals' diatomaceous earth (DE) mines. 10-20 million years ago, Northern Nevada was covered by a freshwater lake that was full of stickleback fish - small spiny-rayed fish that lived during the Miocene Epoch.
Recently, EP Minerals hosted a group of 40 Nevada teachers at our diatomaceous earth mine quarry to fossil hunt as part of the Nevada Mining Association's Teacher Education program. The program is designed to encourage teachers to incorporate more mining education, geology and Nevada mineral history into their classrooms. Here's a look at the teacher's group at the DE mine and some of their "treasure"-- 10 million year old stickleback fish fossils.
Nevada teachers dig for 10 million year old stickleback fish fossils at the EP Minerals' DE quarry.
The teachers expressed that this "class" is always one of the most popular and informative because not only do they learn about the amazing uses for diatomaceous earth, they also get to take stickleback fish fossils back to their classrooms!
For more on ancient diatoms, check out this blogpost: diatoms-the-most-useful-animals-on-earth-died-thousands-of-years-ago.
For a quick overview on stickleback fish fossils, watch this video: http://www.dnatube.com/video/12184/Fossil-Record-of-Stickleback-Evolution.
