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Seashells in the Deserts

It might seem like the last place to look for seashells, but in both the United States and throughout the world, many deserts have plenty of them. From California and the Great Plains in the United States to the Middle East and northern Africa, seashells are found in abundance, and often in sandstone carved for building.

The Great Plains
- Hard as it is to believe, the deserts in the Great Plains hold lots of seashells. Caucasian settlers reported encountering Native Americans who would trade seashells for the settlers' items. Once a body of water known as the Great Interior Sea sat there before receding slowly off the continent. The highest concentration of seashells lies in chalk in western Kansas.
New Mexico and Texas
- Saddling the border between Texas and New Mexico is one of the best seashell fossil deposits in the world. It is called the Capitan Reef, and it spans 400 miles. Guadalupe Mountains National Park features El Capitan, a towering limestone that has many seashells uncovered by erosion.
California
- In California a huge amount of seashells were found by an exploratory group in 1776. Today you can visit the site in the Anzo-Borrego Desert State Park, which has signs explaining shell reefs in the desert composed of countless oysters and clams. In the 1776 exploration, Father Pedro Font mused in his journal that he believed the entire world was once covered by the sea. He was partially right. The Coyote Mountains and Fish Creek in the California desert are also full of seashells. Father Pedro Font was describing what he saw in Yuha Basin, a desert about three and a half hours north of Los Angeles.
Northern Africa
- The pyramids are full of seashells.
  
  Not only are seashells common in northern Africa, they are a major component of famous landmarks such as the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids. The pyramid blocks can be as much as 40 percent seashells. It is believed that the blocks were carved out of a nearby ancient seabed, where they had existed for millenia before Egypt rose to power. Most of these shells are from protozoa that had shells, but some urchins and starfish have also been found.
Formation
- At one time, each of these areas was under water. The Shell Reef in Anzo-Borrego Desert State Park was formed in a similar way, when the Pacific extended over what is now a dry desert and home to off-road enthusiasts. These shells can be found wherever there has been erosion, such as places like cliff walls and stream beds.

Sea Shell Collecting