Prehistoric Trackways

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.

Geoinfo

Prehistoric Trackways National Monument is a national monument in the Robledo Mountains of Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States, near the city of Las Cruces.

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Exploring New Mexico

Just north of Las Cruces, the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument includes Paleozoic Era fossilized footprint megatrackways within approximately 5,280 acres. The area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The National Monument was established 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. This is a desert area dominated by creosote. The trackways contain footprints of numerous amphibians, reptiles, and insects (including previously unknown species), plants, and petrified wood dating back 280 million years, which collectively provide new opportunities to understand animal behaviors and environments from a time predating dinosaurs. The site contains the most scientifically significant Early Permian track sites in the world. Open year-round and without an entrance fee, there are opportunities for hiking, horseback riding, and off highway vehicle driving in portions of the monument. However, viewing trackways is limited; as they are discovered, and to preserve them for ongoing and future scientific study, the trackways are removed and transported to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (1801 Mountain Road NW in Albuquerque). Public tours of their Geoscience Collection, including the Trackways Collection, are available by reservation.

Prehistoric Trackways National Monument located in the Robledo Mountains in New Mexico is the world’s most important fossil record of its kind for the Permian period of the Paleozoic Era.

Robledo Mountain-Prehistoric Trackways Trail is a 7.8 mile lightly trafficked loop trail located near Las Cruces, New Mexico that features...

Discover Prehistoric Trackways National Monument in Las Cruces, New Mexico: Wee (and not so wee) footprints that insects and reptiles of the Paleozoic Era left behind.

conservation lands

Hands on the Land is a network of field classrooms stretching across America from Alaska to Florida. This learning network is sponsored by Partners in Resource Education, a collaboration of six Federal agencies, a non-profit foundation, schools, and other private sector partners.

07.15.10 (LAS CRUCES) -- Animal tracks 280 million years old. KRWG's Jared Andersen reports.

At Trackways National Monument, experts have excavated the best examples of Paleozoic era plants and animals on the planet. "These different types of fossils...

The Prehistoric Trackways National Monument was established in 2009 in the Robledo Mountains. The history of the area dates back 280 million years ago and fe...