Diverse Stromatolites in Washington State (Assigned out of "On Methuselah's Trail")

Washington is a very diverse place for fossils and sedimentary rock, with relatively young deposits of rock found on the Western and Eastern parts. A cast of an ancient rhinoceros can be found at the UW that tells the tale of great extinction. In one corner of Washington Paleozoic and pre-Paleozoic rocks can be found, showing creatures with skeletons. A town in Washington called Addy is a place where one can walk up a hill …

…the more simple shelled ones. This organism shows the evolution of life shown in all organisms. Lingula, a form of brachiopod has existed from the Ordovician to the present. Their shells have seemingly been unchanged since their existence, but they have survived because of their unique survival characteristics. They were one of the first organisms to burrow in their early time, and learned to withstand low salinity waters which much of its predators could not.