Marine reptiles of North-Central Texas

The rocks beneath most of North Texas were formed by the rise and fall of the ancient Western Interior Seaway that split North America in two for much of the Cretaceous Period. A great diversity of marine life is preserved as fossils in these rocks, providing Perot Museum researchers glimpses of life and death in the Cretaceous seas of North Texas.

Trinity Group terrestrial ecosystems

Dinosaurs once roamed North Texas alongside ancient crocodilians, turtles, fish, amphibians, pterosaurs, and mammals. Perot Museum researchers investigate fossil sites across the region that document the diversity and evolution of the animals that called Texas home 115-110 million years ago.

Woodbine Group terrestrial ecosystems

96 million years ago, North Texas was the western shoreline of Appalachia, the half of North America east of the ancient Western Interior Seaway. The plants and animal fossils preserved in the sediments formed along that shoreline are subjects of intense study by Perot Museum researchers.

Big Bend Late Cretaceous animals and plants

Rocks in and around Big Bend National Park preserve the fossils of plants and animals dating from before and after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event. Museum researchers study these fossils to understand the ancient West Texas ecosystems leading up to the end of the Cretaceous Period.

New Mexico terrestrial environments and plants

At a time when most of Texas was under the waves of the Western Interior Seaway, the western shoreline of the seaway was in Central and Western New Mexico. Museum scientists are working on the land plants buried and preserved here by rivers, streams, and ash from volcanic eruptions at the time marine reptiles swam in the seas covering North Texas.