Paleontology in Washington (state)

Its fossil record shows an unusually great diversity of preservational types including carbonization, petrifaction, permineralization, molds, and cast.

In the Cenozoic the state's sea began to withdraw towards the west, while local terrestrial environments were home to a rich variety of trees and insects.

[5] During the Cretaceous the regions now occupied by the northern Cascade Mountains and the San Juan Islands were home to creatures like cephalopods with both coiled and uncoiled shells as well as pelecypods.

Tertiary vertebrates of Washington included the horse Hipparion, bison, camels, caribou, oreodonts, and many different kinds of rodent.

[10] On May 3, 1992 the Seattle Times ran an article announcing the possible discovery of the first known Diatryma footprint in the Puget Group of Flaming Geyser State Park.

A few months later, on July 17, the Times ran another article reporting that Allison Andors and several other experts on Diatryma concluded that the purported fossil footprint of Flaming Geyser State Park was actually a clever hoax.

Nevertheless, in ichnologists Martin Lockley and Adrian Hunt's 1999 book on fossil footprints from western North America, the authors concluded that the track was legitimate after all.