Castle Rock rainforest

Alongside Interstate 25 at Castle Rock, Steve Wallace, a CDOT paleontologist, discovered an exciting fossil site: many big, black leaves practically falling out of the rock cut. When the interstate was being widened, the Museum collaborated with CDOT to excavate these incredibly rich fossil beds, revealing one of the earliest rainforests ever discovered—about 64 million years old. The discovery included fossil flowers, seedling cycads, and the pictured Artocarpus, a type of “breadfruit” that today lives in southeast Asia.