of the site's richness was the skull of a juvenile rhinoceros noticed in 1971 eroding out of a gully at the edge of a cornfield. In 1971, University of Nebraska State Museum paleontologist Michael Voorhies was walking with his wife Jane through a series of gullies on Melvin Colson's farm in northeastern Nebraska and made this discovery. The Nebraska Game and Parks Foundation purchased the Ashfall site in 1986. Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park opened in 1991. The site was declared a National Natural Landmark on May 9, 2006. The park's Hubbard Rhino Barn opened in 2009. The pavilion lets visitors observe as paleontologists carry out excavations of new discoveries exactly where the fossilized remains lie preserved. Specially constructed walkways afford visitors an unobstructed close-up view of paleontologists at work during the summer field season. Species The remains of Teleoceras are so numerous and concentrated that the main section of Ashfall is called the "Rhino Barn". Other fossils at the "Rhino Barn" include the remains of horses and camels. Taxa discovered in the Ashfall deposits include: five horse genera: Cormohipparion, Protohippus, Pseudhipparion, Neohipparion and Pliohippus three camelid genera: Procamelus, Aepycamelus and Protolabis three canid genera: Leptocyon, Cynarctus and evidence of scavenging from a bone-crushing canid, possibly Epicyon one rhinoceros genus: Teleoceras one saber-toothed musk deer genus: Longirostromeryx three bird species: Balearica exigua (a crowned crane), Apatosagittarius (a hawk resembling the living secretarybird), and Anchigyps (a scavenger related to Old World vultures) three turtle species: Hesperotestudo (a large tortoise), Sternotherus (a musk turtle) and Chrysemys (a painted turtle) See also Gray Fossil Site List of fossil sites Pipe Creek Sinkhole References External links Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park University of Nebraska State Museum Ashfall Fossil Beds Skeleton Map University of Nebraska State Museum Cenozoic Geology of Idaho: "The Bruneau-Jarbidge Eruptive Center, Southwestern Idaho" by Bill Bonnichsen (pages 251-268) Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology State parks of Nebraska Museums in Antelope County, Nebraska Protected areas of Antelope County, Nebraska Protected areas established in 1986 Fossil parks in the United States National Natural Landmarks in Nebraska Natural history museums in Nebraska Paleontology in Nebraska Miocene paleontological sites of North America Lagerstätten 1991 establishments in Nebraska 1991 in paleontology 2006 in paleontology Volcanic eruptions in the United States