The Fossil Exploration

Almost everywhere one goes in Cochise County, there is evidence of the geologic past. Some places are, however, better than others. In this expedition into the Whetstone Mountains North of Sierra Vista, you are guaranteed to find fossils of ancient marine life and petrified wood. It's also possible that you may find a dinosaur fossil. Not likely, however, because these mountains, which are also home to the Kartchner Caverns, have already been scoured by many professional and amateur paleontologists.

While at the site, the tour guide will direct your attention to the location at which the world's first and only sonorasaurus find was made. A sonorasaurus is a type of dinosaur which existed from around 112 to 93 million years ago. Its fossilized remains were discovered in November 1994 by geology student Richard Thompson in the same Whetstone Mountains in which you will be digging. Thompson, in the course of investigating a previously almost unexplored region, where fossils proved to be plentiful and directly accessible on the surface, found a relatively complete skeleton of the sonorasaurus which was weathering out on a rock wall.

On the way back to Bisbee, tour participants will receive a personal tour of the Southern Arizona Museum of Science and Technology, which is located at the Sierra Vista Mall. In such tour, each participant will be able to see and touch many of the fossils which have been found in our state. Tour participants can get lunch on their own at the food court.