Geology & Fossils
Idaho is not widely known for its fossils. Much of Idaho was buried under lava millions of years ago or scoured by Ice Age glaciers. It just isn’t the best place to find fossils.
During the Paleozoic Era, which ended some 230 million years ago, Idaho lie under shallow seas. Thus, Paleozoic fossils found in Idaho represent such creatures as trilobites, plantlike animals called crinoids, sea stars (or “starfish”), ammonites (hard-shelled animals with tentacles) and sharks.
The Paleozoic Era was followed by the Mesozoic Era, the “Age of Dinosaurs.” The Northern Rocky Mountains rose more than 65 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period, towards the end of the Mesozoic. Fossils of small dinosaurs have been found in Idaho near the eastern border with Wyoming.
But Idaho is known mostly for its fossils from the late Piocene and Pleistocene epochs, the most recent episodes in the Age of Mammals. The best known Idaho fossil is probably the Hagerman horse, which was adopted as the official state fossil.
Fossils in Our Lives
Like most state fossils, the Hagerman Horse has little practical value. It simply contributes to our knowledge of the past and makes us anxious to learn more.
However, the Hagerman Horse is different from most state fossils in that it has close relatives living today. In fact, some scientists think the Hagerman Horse may be a link between prehistoric horses and modern horses. More than a cousin, it may the ancestor of the horses people admire today.
Few animals have played so great a role in human history as has the modern horse. For centuries, horses were an important form of transportation, mostly in North America and Eurasia. Horses were also important in warfare. Battles were often won by the side with the best horses. From Mongolia, the only country where true wild horses still survive, Mongol warriors conquered much of Asia on horseback.
Long after horses became extinct in North America, they were brought back by Spanish explorers and settlers. Many horses escaped or were stolen by Indians. Later, some Indian tribes — particularly those that lived on the Great Plains — produced some of the world’s best horsemen. They excelled at hunting bison from horseback.
Horses pulled pioneers’ supply-filled wagons across the continent, following in the steps of explorers, trappers, and scouts on horseback. In fact, horse bones at Hagerman were first seen by pioneers following the Oregon Trail. On horseback, cowboys herded cattle where Native Americans had once hunted bison. Like the Indians before them, cowboys were slowly chased off the land as millions of acres of land were plowed with the help of horses or oxen.
Shortly before the invention of the telegraph, the Pony Express carried mail across the country. Then the automobile was invented. Powered by fossil fuels, it traveled faster than a horse, carried more baggage, and offered a more comfortable ride. The freedom of the range was lost as roads and barbed wire crossed the land. The horse’s importance rapidly diminished.
But the horse is still one of Americans’ favorite animals. One of the most beautiful horses is called the Appaloosa, named for the Palouse grasslands of northwestern Idaho and southeastern Washington. (There is also a Palouse River and a town called Palouse in Eastern Washington.) The Appaloosa was adopted as Idaho’s official official state horse.
Some people say the Appaloosa was developed by Idaho’s Nez Perce Indians, but historians say this is a myth, or perhaps a lie. In fact, spotted ponies were roaming America’s grasslands before the Nez Perce acquired horses.
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