Pliocene Fossils Of California

[MikeR]

 Euvola vogdesi (Arnold, 1906). Upper Pliocene (Piacenzian) San Diego Formation, San Diego County, California.

 

  

Edited August 30, 2022 by MikeR
incorrect images

[Boesse]

On 8/26/2022 at 8:04 PM, Thecosmilia Trichitoma said:

For anyone looking to collect there, please keep in mind Capitola Beach is on state land, and that it is illegal to collect fossils there without permission (I assume you have acquired it, but I am just adding this for anyone looking into the site that doesn't know the laws.)

Pub. Res. Code §5097.5.

(a)No person shall knowingly and willfully excavate upon, or remove, destroy, injure, or deface, any historic or prehistoric ruins, burial grounds, archaeological or vertebrate paleontological site, including fossilized footprints, inscriptions made by human agency, rock art, or any other archaeological, paleontological or historical feature, situated on public lands, except with the express permission of the public agency having jurisdiction over the lands. Violation of this section is a misdemeanor.

(b)As used in this section, “public lands” means lands owned by, or under the jurisdiction of, the state, or any city, county, district, authority, or public corporation, or any agency thereof.

 

To be extremely precise here, you're referring to New Brighton State Beach, which is the eastern part of the cliffs. Most of the cliffs are actually owned by the City of Capitola, and they forbid collecting from the cliffs but collecting from fallen boulders is still very much legal. Collecting from the state park requires a permit through California State Parks.

[DardS8Br]

2 hours ago, Boesse said:

To be extremely precise here, you're referring to New Brighton State Beach, which is the eastern part of the cliffs. Most of the cliffs are actually owned by the City of Capitola, and they forbid collecting from the cliffs but collecting from fallen boulders is still very much legal. Collecting from the state park requires a permit through California State Parks.

Collecting from the cliffs is a stupid idea anyway. That rock is really unstable. I've had rocks land right next to me while browsing on the beach. I'd bet if you broke any significant amount of rock out of the cliffs, it would just collapse on you

[siteseer]

5 hours ago, Boesse said:

To be extremely precise here, you're referring to New Brighton State Beach, which is the eastern part of the cliffs. Most of the cliffs are actually owned by the City of Capitola, and they forbid collecting from the cliffs but collecting from fallen boulders is still very much legal. Collecting from the state park requires a permit through California State Parks.

 

I was thinking about what Thecosmilia said because the whole beach area isn't state park land so I wondered if something changed in recent years.  People have been picking up fossil shells for decades and no one has ever been busted for that (or even warned) as far as I know.

[siteseer]

Here's a Carcharodon carcharias (great white shark) upper anterior tooth from the Pliocene Las Posas Formation of Ventura County, CA.  It measures 1 3/4 inches (44mm) long.  The funny thing about Pliocene shark teeth from California is that most of the ones you find are great whites.  Isurus and Carcharhinus are actually uncommon to rare.  Sphyrna and Hexanchus are especially rare and I've seen Prionace only from Oceanside but it's extremely rare.

 

I'm not sure why I went with the dark blue background - photo from some time ago.

[Thecosmilia Trichitoma]

14 hours ago, Boesse said:

To be extremely precise here, you're referring to New Brighton State Beach, which is the eastern part of the cliffs. Most of the cliffs are actually owned by the City of Capitola, and they forbid collecting from the cliffs but collecting from fallen boulders is still very much legal. Collecting from the state park requires a permit through California State Parks.

Thank you for the correction. 

[siteseer]

On 8/28/2022 at 11:49 AM, Uncle Siphuncle said:

I did this venue years ago,must have taken 100 perfect ones including doubles and triples cemented together in just a couple hours.

 

 

Oh yeah, there are spots where you could fill up a burlap bag but you have to be careful because the weight of the bag could crush the ones on the bottom.  We found a great site with numerous singles but not many multiples.  Another site had mostly matrix pieces.  Some of the sand dollars were nicely exposed; others would have required some prep.  The encrusted sandstone can be quite a challenge.  Some of them had the sand dollars exposed upside-down.

[MikeR]

Crassadoma gigantea (J.E. Gray, 1825). Upper Pliocene (Piacenzian) San Joaquin Formation, King County, California.

 

 

[MikeR]

Swiftopecten parmaleei (Dall, 1898). Upper Pliocene (Piacenzian) San Joaquin Formation, King County, California.

 

 

[RJB]

Here is a short video of a large pectin from Scotia Bluffs, northern Cal. 

 

 

[MikeR]

Euvola keepi (Arnold, 1906). Lower Pliocene (Zanclean) Latrania Formation, Imperial County, California.

 

[MikeR]

Lyropecten tiburonensis Smith, 1991. Lower Pliocene (Zanclean) Latrania Formation, Imperial County, California.

 

[MikeR]

Argopecten mendenhalli (Arnold, 1906). Lower Pliocene (Zanclean) Latrania Formation, Imperial County, California.

 

[siteseer]

Carcharodon carcharias

Pliocene

San Diego Formation

Washington Street, San Diego, San Diego County, California

2 5/16 inches (just under 60mm) long

 

This tooth was collected sometime in the 1970's-1980's.  In the 1940's, there were  a number of fossil sites around San Diego but many of them started getting built on in the 50's.  This site was still producing decades later but then it was landscaped over by the late 80's to slow down erosion.