After spending an afternoon at the Florissant fossil beds, I couldn’t help but think about a couple of phrases that I have heard and used several times in my life: “some things are just out of our control” and “everything happens for a reason”. Although we can never be 100 % certain about every aspect of life, fossils do tell most of the story. At present, we have the means to track Mother Nature from time and distance. This gives us the ability to make personal adjustments that allow us to mitigate some of the damage but it does not allow for total protection or a complete defense. The story told by the fossils about the Redwood trees is one of inevitability. About 35 million years ago, life existed one day for numerous creatures, trees and plants and then it came to a complete end the very next day. With the fossils at Florissant, they not only allow us to know about the past but they also assist us in understanding it. It is this understanding that enables us to speculate what things could have been like and what things should have been like. In addition, they answer the ultimate question about whether we are better off because of what happened and the way it happened. The fact that we are here now, long after Mother Nature killed everything in its path millions of year ago would suggest that those events were essential to our existence.
A beautiful day at the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument
This is what is left of the Redwood trees
Mother Nature taking it's course
New Life
I wonder if he bites?
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