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I had a free morning last weekend, so I drove out to Jalama beach. A while ago while searching for good places to fossil hunt near Santa Barbara I saw this post and since then have stopped by twice for a few hours each to crack rocks without any luck. This time I finally found myself a Jalama beach fish. It's not in good enough shape to identify (for me, anyway), but it's nice to finally get something. I had read that the south side of the beach is more fossil rich, so I walked south until I didn't see any people and then started working my way back. The fossil-rich layer is a beige layered rock. This link, referenced in the post that got me interested in Jalama beach, refers to this formation as "the diatom beds of Lompoc." The cleavage is extremely nice and it reminds me of the green river formation fossils you see around (although it seems the fish are usually smaller). Most of the rock in the cliffs is a reddish brown crumbly rock without many fossils, and the first time I came I wasted a bunch of time messing around with that. You definitely have to poke around a bit to find the fossil rich rocks. Anyway, I found the fish almost immediately, and didn't find anything else as I worked my way back for the rest of the morning. I think next time I'll try to go even further south. There are a lot of fragments of algae fossils around and I only picked one up because it looked kind of interesting- I haven't really put any effort into identifying it yet. If anyone else is thinking about going to Jalama beach, I highly recommend bringing along a sharp flat chisel (see picture). I bought rectangular knife stock on Amazon and then sharpened it. It definitely helps in getting the rock to break along a plane instead of shattering, which is usually what happens with a regular geology hammer. Also, if you'd like some company I'd be happy to hunt with someone else, I don't really know anyone else in the area that does this.

So this specimen I found a few months ago camping above Santa Barbara at the beach. It is 3" long x 1-7/8" wide x 1-1/2" thick. I was walking below cliffs that I could see other small shelled creature fossils. I decided to break apart some hardened sandstone. Inside I found this encapsulated in the sandstone. Any ideas? Let me preface by stating that my geological background isn't that deep. I do my own research. I have a lot of outdoor experience. I have been doing more research into gems and minerals. I spend a lot of time fishing beaches I'm No. LA county, all of Ventura county, and sometimes SB county. Thanks for any help. Tim.

Here's a new paleo-reconstuction I drew since the past two days of Albicetus oxymycterus, which is a mid-Miocene raptorial physeteroid none of you have probably heard about. Special thing between this little Moby-Dick and city I live in is that although it was not discovered directly in PV, it was discovered very nearby in Santa Barbara in the same formation and sublayer that exists here which highly suggests that it also swam here 16-14 million years ago. I tried to make this as scientifically accurate as possible using the resources I had, which included the entire 2015 paper establishing the genus Albicetus. I mainly used a pre-existing sketch of Aulophyseter morricei as body reference (which the paper stated is morphologically most similar to A. oxymycterus except for dentition) and used the paper's skull reconstruction for the head. I used a Zygophyseter-like head as the paper stated that the supracranial basin of the skull does not elongate to the end of the maxilla like that of Zygophyseter and Acrophyseter, which both posses snouts as a result. For the body size, I calculated the skull-body ratio by dividing the mean and lower condylobasal length estimates to the total calculated length, which came with either a 1:4.6 or 1:4.9 ratio. (Unrelated to the drawing, the 1:4-5 ratio is based on using a body formula for Physeter and Kogia spp.. If you use the upper Livyatan melvillei /Zygophyseter varolai estimates as reference, a ratio of 1:5.9 and total length of 8.6 meters is calculated) I don't know any of the advanced formulas some of you guys probably do know about and simply used division, so my calculations might not be the most accurate ones. I also put in a diver for scale this time! EXTRAS

I've heard of fossilized fish being found on Jalama Beach. Is there still lots of material being found there?

I picked this up from a dried up river bed about 16 years ago. Santa Barbara, 154, Cold Spring Tavern area, approx. ele. 1800'

I've heard there are whale bones and petrified wood found in beaches in Santa Barbara, are there any specific sites that yield these specimens?

This bone fragment was found in a pile of coarse gravel outside of my condo in Santa Barbara. I do not know the source of the gravel. Please help if you can identify it or have any clues. Looks like it might be the distal end of a humerus.

I’d really appreciate any help on this: I just bought a couple of fossil specimens that were described as: Middle Miocene, Monterey Shale Formation. Tranquillon Peak ashfall grading into regular sediments. Rezner Quarry in Tempesquet Canyon, Santa Barbara County, California. The fossils were collected in 1999. I’m trying to find out anything more about the locality. Has anyone ever heard of this quarry? Does anyone know where it is? Does anyone have any suggestions for contacting someone who might know more? I’m not looking to collect there (I live hundreds of miles away!); I would just be grateful for any additional information. Thanks a lot!