Vincent L. Santucci

• PhD
• Senior Paleontologist at National Park Service

The U.S. National Park Service stratotype inventory has systematically documented hundreds of published stratotypes across the country that represent a quintessential component of America’s geoheritage and possess significant scientific, educational, cultural, historic, and aesthetic values. As valuable geologic reference standards, stratotypes rec...

Obruchevodid petalodonts are rare small chondrichthyans known from nearly complete to partial skeletons from the Upper Mississippian (Serpukhovian) Bear Gulch Limestone of central Montana and isolated teeth from the Upper Mississippian Bangor Limestone of northern Alabama. New records of obruchevodid petalodonts are presented here from the Middle M...

Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CUVA) was established as Cuyahoga River National Recreation Area on December 27, 1974, to preserve and protect the Cuyahoga River Valley and its historic, scenic, natural, and recreational values. While not explicitly mentioned in the park’s mission statement, paleontological resources preserved at CUVA are neverthele...

Describes the recent (2021-2022) discovery of Triassic ichnofossil sites in Wupatki National Monument, Arizona

Mammoth Cave National Park (MACA) in central Kentucky holds the longest cave system in the world, with cave passages cutting through Middle to Upper Mississippian limestones. These limestones hold records of fish assemblages, mostly dominated by chondrichthyans, that are primarily identified from isolated teeth, spines, and occasional skeletal cart...

United States Geological Survey (USGS) work in the northwest corner of Grand Tetons National Park (GRTE), in western Wyoming in the early 1950’s had identified a rich fossil fish assemblage from the Early Permian PhosphoriaFormation. This initial survey recovered fish fossil samples that included the edestoidSinohelicoprion, small holocephalans, ct...

Dr. Martin G. Lockley explored and published extensively on vertebrate ichnological resources at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (GLCA), primarily from the shores of Lake Powell in Utah and Arizona. Since 2010, a team from the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site, working in conjunction with GLCA and National Park Service paleontologists, has fo...

Bryce Canyon National Park Paleontological Resource Inventory

Colorado National Monument (COLM) in western Colorado was established on May 24, 1911 with the purpose of preserving, understanding, and enjoying the natural and cultural resources of the landscape, focusing on the history, erosional processes, and geology present. Although not explicitly mentioned in the monument’s purpose statement, the paleontol...

Two new ctenacanthiform sharks representing two families, Ctenacanthidae and Heslerodidae, have been identified from the Middle to Late Mississippian marine sediments from Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, and two Late Mississippian marine horizons in northern Alabama. The ctenacanthid, Troglocladodus trimblei, gen. et sp. nov., is known from i...

Paleontological site monitoring in National Park Service units can deviate from the recommended cyclical protocol because of unique challenges each unit may face. These challenges include staffing limitations or turnover, difficulty accessing remote sites, and high work volume. Insufficient monitoring of fossil sites might result in the loss of kno...

The fossil record preserved throughout the parks, monuments, and other areas administered by the National Park Service spans at least 1.4 billion years and reveals rich and diverse paleontological resources available for scientific research and public education. Fossils documented in at least 286 different NPS areas represent important and iconic c...

In recent years the discovery of paleontological and archaeological resources exposed because of natural disasters and rapid erosion—mostly linked to climate change—has occurred at a phenomenal rate. Each year wildfires, floods, landsides, retreating glaciers, snow melt, soil erosion, and receding lakes and reservoirs are uncovering valuable resou...

George Washington Birthplace National Monument (GEWA) is a National Park Service (NPS) unit located in the Northern Neck of Virginia, situated on low bluffs overlooking the Potomac River. This small park unit, focused primarily on cultural and historical resources, may seem at first glance to be an unlikely candidate for notable paleontological res...

Globally, caves provide important refugia for bats. The Grand Canyon, more than 400 km (250 mi) long, consists of steep-sided, rocky formations with hundreds to thousands of natural caves. Two of these, Double Bopper and Leandras Caves, are remarkable because of the presence of desiccated bat carcasses, ranging in condition from skeletal to well-pr...

The history associated with the discovery, research, preservation, protection, and loss of the fossil cycadeoid locality near Minnekahta in the southern Black Hills of South Dakota-which for 35 years was designated as Fossil Cycad National Monument-has gained considerable public attention. Several publications have attempted to capture por tions of...

A focused search for ancient Mississippian Subperiod marine vertebrates during a paleontological resource inventory of Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, has yielded a wealth of new fossil data, previously unrecognized at this park. To date, we have identified marine vertebrate fossils from four primary horizons at the park, two of which are the...

Theodore Roosevelt National Park (THRO) in western North Dakota comprises badlands that surround the Little Missouri River in three separate units. Established initially as a national memorial park in 1947 and redesignated as a national park with its current boundaries in 1978, THRO was founded for its connection to its amesake, the United States p...

Description of a new petalodont shark from the Middle Mississippian Ste. Genevieve Formation at Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky.

A large fallen block of Early Jurassic Navajo Sandstone located at Lake Powell, within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, south-central Utah, displays natural casts of vertebrate tracks. The footprints occur on at least three track-bearing horizons preserved on and between stromatolitic sandstone beds. Two large, parallel trackways, plus a third...

Human footprints at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, USA, reportedly date to between ~23,000 and 21,000 years ago according to radiocarbon dating of seeds from the aquatic plant Ruppia cirrhosa . These ages remain controversial because of potential old carbon reservoir effects that could compromise their accuracy. We present new calibrated ¹⁴...

In the 1960s, United States Geological Survey (USGS) geologists working in the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Harebell Formation in the Big Game Ridge area of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, collected the first known dinosaur fossil from this iconic park. Consisting of a single shed theropod tooth, the fossil was previously identified as a “de...

Isolated teeth of two janassid petalodonts collected from cave passages within the Middle Mississippian (Viséan) Joppa Member of the Ste. Genevieve Formation at Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky represents the first record of this group of chondrichthyans from this formation. A new janassid, Strigilodus tollesonae, gen et sp. nov., is recognised...

This report represents the first comprehensive paleontological resource inventory for Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota. This is the public version of the park's paleontological resource inventory.

Conservation biology, and the descendent discipline conservation paleobiology, are philosophically aligned with the mission of the National Park Service (NPS), including near time and deep time frameworks. As defined in the Organic Act of August 25, 1916, the purpose and mission of the NPS is “…to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic o...

The Cumberland Bone Cave is a public visitation stop along the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail renowned for its unique fossil resources that help reconstruct Appalachian middle Pleistocene life in the mid-Atlantic region of North America. This site is gated for safety and to prevent unwanted exploration and damage. Approximately 163 taxa of...

These Guidelines are intended to help improve the conservation and management of geoheritage and geodiversity in protected and conserved areas and recognition of the interrelationships and interactions with biological features and processes. They are not a textbook on geoconservation management practice, but rather set out the essential background,...

We here establish a new lithostratigraphic unit, the Shellabarger Limestone, from Shellabarger Pass, Denali National Park & Preserve, Talkeetna C-6 quadrangle, south-central Alaska. This late Emsian (latest Early Devonian) limestone body is the oldest fossiliferous Devonian unit recognized within the Dl unit of Reed and Nelson (1977, 1980). It form...

The lands under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service (NPS) have an extensive chondrichthyan (cartilaginous fish) fossil record that spans temporally all the eras of the Phanerozoic and geographically throughout the United States. A total of 46 NPS units have yielded fossil chondrichthyans representing 16 units with specimens from the Paleo...

A jaw fragment with a lower third molar of a small brontothere, Palaeosyops sp. cf. P. laevidens, was collected from a volcanic alluvial mudflow conglomerate from the Wapiti Formation of the Absaroka Volcanic Supergroup, on Mount Hornaday, in the northeastern section of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Palaeosyops laevidens has been found in ear...

An isolated tooth of Carcharopsis wortheni was collected from the Middle Mississippian (Visean) Mexican Springs Formation of the Perdido Group at Death Valley National Park, California by USGS staff in 1963. This marks the first record of this euselachian chondrichthyan taxon for both California and Death Valley National Park and the first descript...

The data assembled for the National Park Service's Paleontology Synthesis Project (PSP) have made it feasible to analyze the geochronological scope of NPS paleontological resources. Paleontological resources have been documented for 283 NPS units and affiliated areas; 245 have confirmed in situ or reworked fossils. From this subset, the NPS record...

The enactment of the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act in March 2009 identified specific mandates involving the management of non-renewable paleontological resources for federal land managing agencies in the

Abstract—Carlsbad Caverns National Park (CAVE) is located in southeastern New Mexico, southwest of Carlsbad, Eddy County. Situated in the Chihuahuan Desert, the park includes more than 120 caverns of all sizes, formed by millions of years of limestone dissolution. Best known to visitors for its cave systems with expansive rooms adorned with spectac...

A report on the paleontological resources found in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota including local geology, taxonomy of local fossils, fossil localities within the park, museum collections and paleontological archives of materials found in the park, a review of park paleontological research, paleontological interpretation,...

A new record of Miracinonyx trumani has been recognized from the Grand Canyon of northern Arizona. Three sites along the length of the canyon contain fossils of M. trumani; Rampart Cave, Next Door Cave, and Stanton's Cave. Rampart Cave contains partial skeletons of a juvenile and a sub-adult cat. Cranial materials from Rampart Cave are distinct fro...

Texto original: Guidelines for geoconservation in protected and conserved areas (2020) Crofts, R., Gordon, J. E., Brilha, J., Gray, M., Gunn, J., Larwood, J., Santucci, V.L., Tormey, D., Worboys, G.L Tradução para língua portuguesa (2022): José Brilha, Maria da Glória Garcia, Paulo Pereira e Ricardo G. Fraga de A. Pereira

Mammoth Cave National Park (MACA) in Kentucky contains the longest known cave system in the world. Over 400 miles of passages cut through Late Mississippian sedimentary rocks representing three geologic formations. The oldest of these Late Mississippian beds is the Horse Cave Member of the upper portion of the St. Louis Formation. The St. Louis For...

Early footsteps in the Americas Despite a plethora of archaeological research over the past century, the timing of human migration into the Americas is still far from resolved. In a study of exposed outcrops of Lake Otero in White Sands National Park in New Mexico, Bennett et al . reveal numerous human footprints dating to about 23,000 to 21,000 ye...

The fossil record of Grand Canyon National Park is expansive from geospatial, geologic, temporal paleotaxonomic and paleoenvironmental perspectives. The fossiliferous sedimentary strata are heavily dissected throughout the park’s 4,950 square kilometers (1,904 square miles), with a 446 km (277 mile)-long canyon cut by the Colorado River reaching an...

Captions and script for my video presentation of this conference poster.

A video file containing my recorded presentation for this virtual conference poster.

Pareiasauromorpha is one of the most important tetrapod groups of the Permian. Skeletal evidence suggests a late Kungurian origin in North America, whereas the majority of occurrences come from the Guadalupian and Lopingian of South Africa and Russia. However, Pareiasauromorpha footprints include the ichnogenus Pachypes, which is unknown from strat...

Two species of holocephalan chondrichthyans are identified and described from the Mooney Falls Member of the early Late Mississippian Redwall Limestone at the Grand Canyon National Park. A specimen previously referred to “Helodus sp.” from the South Kaibab Trail is re-diagnosed as Psephodus sp. A new specimen of Helodus sp. is identified from the S...

Structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry is an increasingly common component of paleontological research and fossil resources management. The three-dimensional (3D) data and the derived products allow for novel and useful avenues to engage and problem-solve with park resource managers and stakeholders. The National Park Service (NPS) is developin...

This is a comprehensive inventory of paleontological resources in Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument.

The occurrence of fossils and fossiliferous stone within historic and prehistoric structures is relatively widespread and presents some unique insights into the human dimensions of paleontological resources. Fossil invertebrates, vertebrates, plants, and trace fossils are all known to occur within building stones incorporated into a wide variety of...

In 2015, two fossil chimaeroid egg cases preserved as external molds were identified from the coastal facies of the middle Campanian (Late Cretaceous) Cliff House Sandstone at the top of the Mesaverde Group in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. The more complete specimen was unearthed earlier that year, while a fragmentary specimen containing only...

Belemnites (order Belemnitida) are an extinct group of coleoid cephalopods, known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. We compiled detailed information on 252 occurrences of belemnites in six National Park Service (NPS) areas in Alaska. This information was based on published literature and maps, unpublished U.S. Geological Survey internal fos...

The vast taxonomic breadth of the National Park Service (NPS)'s fossil record has never been systematically examined until now. Paleontological resources have been documented within 277 NPS units and affiliated areas as of the date of submission of this publication (Summer 2020). The paleontological records of these units include fossils from dozen...

Human tracks at White Sands National Park record more than one and a half kilometres of an out- and-return journey and form the longest Late Pleistocene-age double human trackway in the world. An adolescent or small adult female made two trips separated by at least several hours, carrying a young child in at least one direction. Despite giant groun...

These Guidelines are intended to help improve the conservation and management of geoheritage and geodiversity in protected and conserved areas and recognition of the interrelationships and interactions with biological features and processes. They are not a textbook on geoconservation management practice, but rather set out the essential background,...

Carlsbad Caverns National Park (CAVE) is located about 20 miles southwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico. The park is situated in the northern Chihuahuan Desert, and contains more than 119 caverns of various sizes. Though CAVE is best known for several cave systems with expansive rooms adorned with spectacular speleothems, the park also preserves signific...

The groundwater carving of the cave system at Mammoth Cave National Park (MACA) has produced one of the longest cave systems, over 400 miles in length, on the planet. These extensive underground passageways cut though Late Mississippian marine limestones that contain vertebrate remains, primarily those of cartilaginous fishes. Slow dissolution of t...

Understanding the route(s) and timing of human colonisation of the Americas has become something of a scientific obsession; the last chapter in the ‘Out of Africa’ story. It is a story linked with the end-Pleistocene extinction of megafauna and therefore potentially the start of the Anthropocene. The role of Paleoindian foragers in the extinction o...

Executive Summary: Since Agate Springs Ranch was founded by James H. Cook in 1887, exquisite examples of transitional Miocene mammalian fauna have been found along this stretch of the Niobrara River valley. Collectively these paleontological discoveries, along with the existing archeological and historical Native American collection, were the bas...

This document is an inventory of the paleontological resources of Carlsbad Caverns National Park (CAVE), representing a combination of field work and literature synthesis. It begins with background summaries about the park and its geological, paleontological, and scientific history. It then moves into descriptions of paleontological resources incl...

Proboscideans (Mammalia, Proboscidea) are an ubiquitous part of North American vertebrate faunas throughout the Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene. Here we discuss the fossil record of proboscideans found on public lands administered by the National Park Service (NPS), which is comprised of 419 units. At least 276 of these units contain some aspect...

The principal goals and objectives for the Grand Canyon National Park Centennial Paleontological Resource Inventory were to identify the scope, significance, distribution and management issues associated with the fossils of the park. Through this effort we compiled baseline paleontological resource information for park managers and staff to better...

The principal goals and objectives for the Grand Canyon National Park Centennial Paleontological Resource Inventory were to identify the scope, significance, distribution and management issues associated with the fossils of the park. Through this effort we compiled baseline paleontological resource information for park managers and staff to better...