Nature
The Coldwater Beds are an Early Eocene geologic formation in British Columbia's Okanagan Highlands, first defined by George Dawson in 1895 from exposures along the Coldwater River. About 230 metres thick, they consist of mudstones, shales, and tuffs deposited in an ancient lake. The formation preserves a rich fossil record dominated by insects and plants, with abundant fish remains and rarer molluscs, bird feathers, and a tooth from an indeterminate insectivorous mammal. Volcanic ash layers have helped establish its age, and its fossils reveal a moist, temperate upland climate during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum that was warmer and wetter than the region is today.
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British Columbia · Canada
