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As I live relatively close to Carmel Valley, I have recently been researching into collecting fossils there, especially the Pinnixa pea crabs.The main collecting information I have heard from several different sources is to “Collect along Carmel Valley road road cuts and the surround road cuts. Look for the whitish shale and collect there.” However, I am concerned about the legality of this. Even though many people have gone collecting there, I believe the road to be public land, and California’s laws say that no collecting is allowed on public land. I know that in some fossiliferous areas in the US there are exceptions to this rule (such as Millard Country Utah,) and want to make sure it is legal to collect there before I go. If it is illegal to collect along there, I would appreciate any legal sites/ private land owners to contact, if some members would be willing to share them. (Of course, over PM unless it is already a very well known site, such as the Carmel Valley road road cuts.)

I've been fairly absent from the board the last month and the reason is I got crabs, and the good kind. It was posted a couple years ago by a one time poster/user about Pinnixa galliheri (Rathbun, 1932) from Atascadero, CA, I had since been looking for similar outcrops in the area, considering his front yard is off limits to collecting. A friend of mine, another fossil nut, found a small outcrop by chance while on a walk. The shale is denser and more silicious than the classically known localities near Carmel, CA, also has more iron staining in certain layers, while others we call "Ghost Crabs" since they are white on a grey petroleum chert rich shale. First I'll start with a less common specimen from the Monterey/Carmel area, Parapinnixa miocenica, as described by Mary Rathbun in 1932. I purchased this item on eBay last week, got it in the mail on Monday and prepped it Tuesday, could tell it was just begging to be prepped out I use a PaleoTools MicroJack #2 under magnification for this work, I'm still learning, if you have suggestions please feel free to share. Here is a Before/After sequence: