This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Thirty-five years on—well, 12 million, technically—Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park continues to offer important glimpses of prehistoric life in Nebraska. Consider, for example, Borophaginae, known commonly as bone-crushing dogs.
In recent years, researchers have found footprints believed to be from these carnivores amid the ash at the site. They also have found tooth marks that seem to match those of the dogs in the bones of rhinos, horses and camels that died in the ash, said Sam Matson, the park's superintendent. However, university scientists have yet to find skeletal remains, suggesting the animals—not actual dogs but an evolutionary offshoot about the size of wolves—may have survived the ash that trapped their prey at a watering hole long enough to enjoy some meals but left the scene before they died there with their dinner.
"We even find coprolites—fossil poop—that have chips of bone in them," Matson said. "So, we know those are coming from a dog. But so far, no skeletons of the scavengers, so we don't know if they survived the event." It is possible that researchers will yet find skeletal remains of the animals, perhaps in fossil dens.
Ashfall Fossil Beds, part of the University of Nebraska State Museum, is celebrating its 35th year in 2026. Recent years' findings about the bone-crushing dogs exemplify how research at the site, housed within 360 acres (0.6 square mile) of Nebraska prairie near Royal, Nebraska, continues to yield knowledge. Geologists believe that this mass graveyard is the result of an enormous volcanic eruption—1,000 times larger than the 1980 Mount St.
Helens blast—that occurred 12 million years ago in what is now southwest Idaho, nearly 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) due west of the Ashfall Fossil Beds. The fine volcanic ash was deposited thousands of miles from the volcano, including across a huge area of the Great Plains. The ash from this supervolcano eruption is still intact across much of northern Nebraska, about a foot thick (30 centimeters) in most places—but 8 to 10 feet thick (2.4 to 3 meters) at the Ashfall site.
Research has determined that the site was the location of a watering hole, basically a large depression on the landscape that would retain water during the wet season and dry out during arid spells, much like waterholes dotted across the savannas of Africa today. Fossils of pond turtles, remains of reed-like plant stems and diatoms within the ash are evidence of water, but the lack of fish fossils and the absence of channeling in the strata indicate something less permanent than a lake or stream-fed pond. Nevertheless, the watering hole would have been a source of drinking water for local animals, as well as a place to wallow or bathe.
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