Fossils from Bolivia

Bolivia has a surprisingly rich fossil record, although it isn’t especially well known in the collectors’ market outside of a few specific areas.

Cal Orcko, near Sucre, is perhaps the most famous fossil site in the country. It features one of the largest collections of dinosaur tracks in the world — thousands of footprints, from a range of species, preserved on an almost vertical slab of limestone. The site is extraordinary, not for body fossils, but for the sheer scale and clarity of the ichnological record.

Bolivia is also known for trilobites, especially around La Paz, where Devonian trilobites have been found around 12,000 feet above sea level! These fossils have been known about for many years, but scientific study has been lacking until relatively recently due to the inaccessible nature of the area.

The El Molino Formation spans parts of central Bolivia and has produced both marine and terrestrial fossils — including fish, and turtles. It’s a large formation with potential, but much of it remains underexplored.

While Bolivia’s fossils are not often seen on the commercial market, the country holds some fascinating and scientifically important deposits across a wide time span.

Bolivia