Thanks to the FLMNH Summer Travel Grant, I was able to fly out to Washington state for crucial fossil field collecting and museum imaging needed for my dissertation research. In July, my advisor, Dr. Steven Manchester, and I met up with an undergraduate researcher and a citizen scientist to collect at the Maple Falls fossil locality of the Chuckanut Mountains. These fossils are from the middle-late Eocene and are reported to have been deposited at the same time as a rapid climate warming event known as the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum, making them very interesting to my research on how ancient plant communities reacted to climate change.

We collected there for several days, discovering 3 macrofossil localities as well as sediments from potential pollen localities. With permission from Washington’s Department of Natural Resources, we collected around 100 leaf fossils. These fossils, ranging from small climbing ferns (Lygodium sp.) to massive palm fronds (Sabalites sp.), remind us of the incredible Eocene subtropical forests that used to live in the now much colder and harsher Cascade Range along the Washington-British Columbia border.

These fossils were graciously accepted by the paleobotany collections manager at the Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture in Seattle, where they will be stored in safe conditions for future research. With the time I had left for this trip, I imaged all of these fossils as well as many that were donated by previous researchers at Maple Falls.

I additionally collected several sandstone blocks that I will pulverize and radiometrically date (Zircon U-Pb ICP-MS) with guidance from Drs. George Kamenov and Dogancan Yasar in the Department of Geology. These dates will help confirm the age of this locality, assisting with any floristic interpretations to be made as I begin drafting my manuscript to formally document these fossils.

Photo of Coal Creek, where the Maple Falls fossil sites have been carved out along.

Palm frond (Sabalites sp.) from the Maple Falls locality. Modern climate conditions of the Chuckanut Mountains are far too cold now for this extinct plant to have continued living here.

Francisco Nares is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology, advised by Dr. Steven Manchester, Curator of Paleobotany here at the Florida Museum.

The 2024 Summer Student Travel Awards are supported by the FLMNH Department of Natural History, including funds from the Louis C. and Jane Gapenski Endowed Fellowship and the B.J. and Eve Wilder Endowment. If you would like to help support this fund for future student awards, please go to:

Louis C. and Jane Gapenski Endowed Fellowship
B.J. and Eve Wilder Endowment