Hogback Mountain is part of a large Madison limestone rock formation. Limestone forms when calcite or aragonite precipitate out of water containing dissolved calcium through both biological and nonbiological processes. This is interesting, because it means the stone exposed at the loftiest elevations of Hogback was, at one time, muck at the bottom of an ancient inland sea. In this case, we are talking 300 million years ago, long before dinosaurs reigned the earth.
More fascinating is the fact you
can find marine fossils in the rock shoulders presently exposed to the elements
at elevations above 7000 feet on the mountain.
While walking amid some of the visible
and often shattered limestone shoulders atop Hogback, we found one small field
of rock debris rather littered with the fossils of sea shells and other marine life. In some cases, the limestone had completely
eroded from around the fossils. In other
instances, fossils remained partially embedded in stone.
For over an hour, Desiree and I
(in great fascination) poked around the windswept field of rocks looking for
fossils. I have posted a couple
photographs of what we found there.
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Fossils Freed from the Limestone
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Embedded Fossils
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