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Cerutti Mastodon, California, reinterpreted as modern road construction "kill"
DPS Ammonite posted a topic in Fossil News
News of a new species of mastodon, the Pacific Mastodon, led me to read about another interesting story about the Cerutti Mastodon found in San Diego, California that was about 130,000 years old. Supposedly humans broke its bones with stones before it was buried. Needless to say, there was a great amount of disagreement that humans were in the America’s 130,000 years ago. An interesting article referencing the Cerutti Mastodon was written in 2017 or later. The author suggested that a giant capuchin monkey may have broken the mastodon’s bones. Enter a small, middle aged man suited up and engulfed in a cloud of cigarette smoke: “That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop.....the Twilight Zone.” https://megafauna.com/a-giant-capuchin-monkey/
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I was wondering if anyone could confirm that these two stones are indeed petrified wood. I picked them up while camping west of the Salton Sea in southern california. There's 2 pieces for consideration: both were found in the same general area, a year apart. They feel like solid rock but show pores and prints that make me think it's petrified wood. If it is, would anyone want to guess family or age? Thanks in advance! Front Back Top
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Here’s an interesting one. I docent at the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, and while I was talking to some visitors one of them gave me a piece of bone fragment his father found (among many other easier to identify pieces) at the tar pits before the museum was created. I have showed to some of the researchers at la Brea, and their guess was that it was a tibia fragment from some mammal. So far based on my own comparisons, it seems closest to a dire wolf, but if anyone else has any other ideas, I’d love to hear them. Thanks!
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I found this rock many many years ago. I called in my California baked potato due to it's shape and color. It had a natural "thumbprint" indentation so I placed my thumb on it and banged it on the bottom side of it and it broke open rather easily in two parts. Inside each half was a mirror image of the other... when I placed them back together in it's original form I lined them up, and curled it open I thought "Oh, it's a fossil butterfly, how cool!" I remember taking it to a local rock shop where I was told "No, it's nothing just the inside of a rock - that's it " I was somewhat discouraged but still thought it to be unique. I have used the rock (untruthfully) to explain what a fossil looks like to my nephew to explain fossils (yikes) - but it does serve to get a picture in his mind. It serves as a reminder as to the "kindness" of the numerous educated members here who are asked to ID something (which could be "nothing:) - by never undermining or embarrassing those who come here for information on what they have found to be something "special" THEY have found - I know this from experiences and Kudos to you all!! Anyway I do know this is NOT a butterfly, perhaps a leaf, or maybe just the inside of a rock - let me know what you think!
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Palm Springs/ Cathedral City/ Route 10 fossil sites?
Carnoraptor posted a topic in Questions & Answers
Hello. I’m on vacation in the Palm Springs area and I’m wondering if there are any good fossil sites within an hours drive? Thanks! -
Im really not sure what this could be. It was found yesterday in 2 million year old fransician muds at Centerville. Im thinking some sort of plant impression. Or maybe a fragmentary piece of sand dollar which are known from this locality aswell.
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Trip from Northern Washington to Northern California
Zenmaster6 posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
This trip started out in Tacoma Washington. Our first stop was Centralia WA. Supposedly there were marine sediments 35 million years old that encompassed bivalves, gastropods and some other small marine life. Of course I have another spot near my house with a similar variety of fossils so I was less interested. None the less I spent 2 hours there looking through clay and checking if I could see any siltstone or shale. Unfortunately I did not find anything here. The next stop was near Portland Oregon in Butte Creek where there have been numerous whale teeth and some other vertebrate fossils. I of course was certain that collecting vertebrates was also illegal in Oregon so I skipped out on keeping anything I found. I came up dry again in Butte creek after an hour of looking. Next I searched Myrtle Creek Oregon briefly as it was getting dark. I didn't see much there, however there could have been plenty that I simply missed in the dark. (also I only looked for 15 minutes) The next day, I went to Riddle Oregon, where supposedly Jurassic Leaf fossils could be found and also some Bivalves, Gastropods and Ammonites. I skipped looking around the town and went straight to Cow Creek (goes through Riddle) and saw fossils across the water, however during February, there was no chance of me swimming across. The current is quite strong too. It also was loaded with private property signs and we even saw a guy looking back at us with a rifle over his shoulder. That is when we left. We heard about Ashland and the great cretaceous formations off the road at I-5 near Klamath Mountain. We traveled up there but found Nada. In California we searched along Gazelle Road and found a few possible corals. Gazelle Callahan Road is Silurian. I got permission from a land owner to search along his property. On the way back we stayed at a motel in Medford. Planning for the day tomorrow I read on PDFs that I was checking the wrong spot along I-5 for the cretaceous fossils south of Ashland. I plotted exactly where they were on maps and got ready to go the next morning. When I arrived at the mountain pass, it had snowed at least 2 - 3 feet. There was no way I was finding anything. Disappointed, we left to go back to Riddle, When I arrived in Riddle, I decided to search the town for Jurassic - Cretaceous fossils. While searched a road cut near town, I found some Bivalves called Buchia (according to the formation species guide) This was the only spot where I did end up finding fossils unfortunately but I did want to share what I found. I still have a whole whiteboard full of fossils I have yet to go through so I couldn't upload all my finds. Riddle Oregon was actually packed with fossils if you look closely. Thanks for reading : )
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Possible Coral by Gazelle California (Silurian - Devonian ) It looks like crystals and the way it has formed on the rock makes me think not a chance of even being biotic at all. Maybe someone knows what mineral this is? Maybe it is a fossil of some kind, but I doubt it.
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Off the road cut in Gazelle Callahan Road Northern California. The location is supposed to be Silurian sediment. I suspect this is solely a mineral but I thought it was strange. Let me know what you think. I'm not looking for specific species, kinda just yes coral or no coral.
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Re-dating the extinction of Otodus/Carcharocles megalodon
Boesse posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Hey all! This week my colleagues and I published a paper we spent most of the last decade sweating over. It is an exhaustive report of all known late Miocene-Pleistocene records of teeth of Otodus (aka Carcharocles) megalodon teeth from the west coast in an attempt to estimate the date at which O megalodon went extinct. Aside from some conspiracy theorists who will wait until they die and not see a live 'meg', we all know it's not living today as there is not a shred of positive evidence indicating its existence. We know it's around in the Miocene, and the early Pliocene. Did it survive into the Pleistocene? End of the Pliocene? or become extinct sometime earlier? These questions require serious thought because it has direct implications for whether or not O. megalodon went extinct at the same time as a bunch of weird marine mammals or if it was killed off by a supernova known to have occurred 2.6 Ma. An earlier study pooled fossil occurrences from around the globe and statistically reconstructed a mean extinction date of 2.5 Ma, with significant error (~3.6 Ma to 100ky in the future being the max and min extinction dates). We found that in the California record, reliable occurrences are only found in early Pliocene rocks. All examples of late Pliocene or Pleistocene teeth were either poorly dated, reworked from Miocene rocks, had poor provenance, or are completely missing (and never photographed) and therefore the identification cannot be confirmed. We thus predicted a 3.6 Ma extinction date. To test this, we re-analyzed the dataset published in 2014 but chucked a bunch of bad data and exhaustively re-researched the stratigraphy of each locality and corrected about 3/4 of the dates in the remaining dataset, and added our new California records. When we analyzed this corrected dataset, our margin of error (the time between the max and min extinction dates) shrank from 3.6 million year long interval to 900,000 years; *probably* extinct by 3.6 Ma (mean extinction date), definitely by 3.2 Ma (min extinction date), and possibly as early as 4.1 Ma (max extinction date). This extinction therefore precedes the 2.6 Ma supernova, as well as the Plio-Pleistocene marine mammal extinction (which in all likelihood was not a mass extinction or an extinction event, rather just a period of higher extinction/origination rate). About 4 Ma is when fully serrated Carcharodon carcharias teeth show up in the North Atlantic, indicating when the two overlapped, however briefly. We think this biotic event matches best - the mechanics of exactly how this was driven are to be figured out by someone else, but perhaps adult Carcharodon outcompeted juvenile O/C megalodon prior to becoming gigantic. Some analyses of Otodus lineage growth rate is going to be necessary. Here's the open access paper here: https://peerj.com/articles/6088/ Here's a blog writeup I did for PeerJ here: https://peerj.com/blog/post/115284881293/early-pliocene-extinction-of-the-mega-toothed-shark-otodus-megalodon-boessenecker/ Excellent summary in Nat Geo: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/02/megalodon-extinct-great-white-shark/ CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/14/us/megalodon-extinct-earlier-scli-intl/index.html Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/science/megalodon-shocker-huge-killer-shark-may-have-been-wiped-out-by-great-whites Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/melissacristinamarquez/2019/02/14/great-white-sharks-may-be-the-reason-why-giant-megalodon-shark-is-extinct/#6a06986a6486 Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6700495/Giant-50-foot-long-predatory-shark-went-extinct-one-million-years-earlier-previously-thought.html
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Okay, I finally unpacked some boxes a couple of weeks with the intent of finally getting this officially named. I believe it is Palmoxylon Mohavensis and I believe from the Miocene. Found in the Mojave Desert in California, north and east of Red Rock Canyon and north and west of Last Chance Canyon about 40 years ago. Size of overall specimen is approximately 4" x 5" x 6" In addition to not knowing the true identity, I think this is also down by the roots? Starting with the end that has been cut and somewhat polished. Graining is confused leading me to think root end of tree?? Opposite end
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Hello, found this tooth in the Round Mountain Silt formation in Bakersfield this weekend. The tooth had serrations, but they are worn down. At first I thought the tooth was a small meg, or a large hemi. Upon closer inspection it does not seem to fit either of those species well. The root is not consistent with that of a meg nor a hemi. Now I am thinking it could be some kind of Requiem shark. What do you guys think?
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This comes from Centerville Beach, Humboldt County California. I've found alot bivalves and snails in the cliffs where I found this. Another Formation 5 miles away has had reports of turtles, shark and marine mammal teeth and even agatized whale bones. I'm sorry about the quality of the pictures. I do not currently have a very nice camera. Its sticks to my tongue and has a rough porous surface. The divet on the right side of the bone in the first picture is a place where is has apparently broken.
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Hello! I'm from Humboldt County California. I've been collecting fossils my whole life. I mainly find invertebrate fossils in my area. Most of the species are extant because my rocks are only about 2 - 3.5 million years old. Here are some picture from my most recent trip. A Giant pacific Sea Scallop, assorted snails, and what I believe to be part of a barnacle just left of the penny in the last photo.
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Hi. I would love help identifying this fossil. Is it what it appears to be, a starfish? Total fossil newbie here from central California coast. This was found on the beach near Capitola where we have MANY fossils. I have found lots locally but never anything like this before. Thank you in advance :-)
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Taxonomy according to Fossilworks.org. Diagnosis from Fritzsche, 1980, p. 217: "A Hipposyngnathus from the upper Modelo Formation of southern California with about 22 dorsal rays; 20-22 trunk rings; 42-44 tail rings; snout 1.5-1.9 in head; orbit 7.8-12.0 in head; pouch rings equal to trunk rings; pectoral fin present but rays not countable; pouch ridge as long as adjacent trunk. Maximum size known 242 mm SL. Discussion about the genus Hipposyngnathus by Fritzsche, 1980, p. 218: "The genus Hipposyngnathus is unusual in having a very exaggerated ventral trunk ridge. Jerzmanska (1968) suggested that the males alone had this ridge and that it was the site of egg deposition. She also speculated that pouch flaps were present on either side of the ridge. However, the extant genus Maroubra also has an enlarged ventral trunk ridge, although not so well developed as in Hipposyngnathus, and its eggs are not protected by flaps. It seems improbable that Hipposyngnathus had brood-pouch flaps." Identified by oilshale using Fritzsche, 1980. References: Jerzmańska, A. (1968). Ichtyofaune des couches à ménilite (flysch des Karpathes). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 13(3), 379-488. Fritzsche, Ronald A.(1980). Revision of the eastern Pacific Syngnathidae (Pisces: Syngnathiformes), including both Recent and fossil forms. PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, Vol 42, 181-227. Přikryl, Tomáš & Krzeminski, Wieslaw & Kania, Iwona. (2011). New information about the anatomy of a peculiar fish of the genus Hipposyngnathus Daniltshenko, 1960. Comptes Rendus Palevol - C R PALEVOL. 10. 559-566. 10.1016/j.crpv.2011.05.001.
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Marine Fossil Three Serrated Edges Late Pleistocene to Pliocene Southern California
MightyPretzel posted a topic in Fossil ID
Happy holidays everyone. I would greatly appreciate help identifying the following specimen. It was collected in the Santa Susana Mountains of Simi Valley, Ventura County, California. It came from the Saugus or Pico Formation. Saugus is late Pleistocene to late Pliocene while Pico is middle Pleistocene to Pliocene. My uncertainty regarding the exact formation arises from the fact that (1) it was float material already weathered out of the formation it came from and (2) based on limited research and knowledge, I believe there has been a lack of consenus regarding differentiation of the two formations (see recent work by Richard Squires et al. in Valencia and R. Squires in Newhall). I assume it is marine since all of Pico is marine and Saugus is non-marine to marine. At first I thought it was a shark tooth when I picked it up but I threw that thought out the window when I realized it had three serrated edges. Measures 22 millimeters long and 6.5 millimeters wide. It is 4 millimeters tall on one end and 9.5 millimeters tall on he end that has the needle structure. There are three to four 'bumps' on both long sides on the end with the needle. The bumps look evenly spaced. I can and will do my best to provide additional info if needed.
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From the album: Vertebrates
Hipposyngnathus imporcitor Fritzsche, 1980 Miocene Santa Barbara California Length 20cm -
Here is a nice little gastropod cluster on the matrix that was rescued from a construction site along Reynard Way in San Diego. I think they are in the family Naticidae and are possibly Polinices galianor. Anyone have any thoughts? I'd love to nail it down more specifically if possible. Naticidae "Reynard Way" ~3-1.5Mya Pliocene to Early Pleistocene San Diego Formation San Diego County, CA Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Mollusca Class: Gastropoda -- Subclass: Caenogastropoda Order: Littorinimorpha Family: Naticidae Genus: Favor Polinices? Species: Galianor
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Hello! Thank you so much for allowing me to join! I live in Far Northern California, proximate to both Mount Shasta and Mount Lassen. I have the pleasure of being close to both the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada mountain ranges. Iwas stricken with the rockhounding bug approximately 5 years ago. My infection has become so extreme that I cannot walk across a grocery store parking lot, without examining the rocks in the Landscaping. I have not, however, outside of my internet purchases, come across any fossils. That is, perhaps, until now. I have posted a query about what I believe to be a fossilized egg, in the fossil ID section. It's possible, of course, that I come across them regularly, and do not have the education or experience to recognize them. I know this to be an area where a person can find many Treasures! If there is anyone in this neck of the woods who would be willing to give me some insight into what I should be looking for, I would be most grateful! Thank you again so much for allowing me to join your group! I look forward to being part of, and learning from your discussions as time goes by. Cheers! TheBabaYaga66
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I feel so silly putting in the tags, because I have no idea what scientific terms I would use... I'm sorry for my ignorance! I found this rock in a streambed in Shasta County, California, USA. I will try to attach the best pictures I can; unfortunately the only camera I have available is my phone, equipped also with a magnifying application. As you see, from comparison with my hand, it is very small. Perhaps the size of, or a bit larger than, a quail egg. Please excuse me if I've done this incorrectly, or if there is some additional information I should provide. I thank you so much for your time and any input!
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Any ideas on this little tooth? C. hastilis or something else. Found in California, Monterey Formation.
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Carcharocles megalodon (Joe Cōcke collection)
Macrophyseter posted a gallery image in Member Collections
From the album: Elasmobranchs
I do not own this rare tooth. It is from the collection of paleontologist Joe Cōcke, which he found locally and gladly allowed me to photograph. -
Migrating Mud Spring Threatens Railroad Tracks, Pipeline, and Road (California)
Oxytropidoceras posted a topic in Geology
This is an unusual geological hazard. The start of the San Andreas fault is hit by the 'slow one': Sunken sinkhole of bubbling mud is moving across Salton Sea destroying everything in its path. The Daily Mail, November 2, 2018 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6343583/The-bubbling-stinking-mud-pool-cause-chaos-San-Andreas-fault.html A San Andreas fault mystery: The 'slow-moving disaster' in an area where the Big One is feared by Alejandra Reyes-Velarde and Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2018 http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-niland-mud-pot-20181101-story.html A Gurgling Mud Pool Is Creeping Across Southern California Like a Geologic Poltergeist By Laura Geggel, Live Science, November 2, 2018 https://www.livescience.com/63998-mud-pool-creeping-across-california.html Geyser Emergency Project - Fact Sheet http://www.icphd.org/media/managed/newsrelease/Geyser_Emergency_Project_Fact_Sheet.pdf Someone needs to to tell the reporters and officials that mud pots / springs are not "geysers." Some papers: Lynch, D.K. and Hudnut, K.W., 2008. The Wister mud pot lineament: Southeastward extension or abandoned strand of the San Andreas fault?. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 98(4), pp.1720-1729. https://authors.library.caltech.edu/12061/1/LYNbssa08.pdf https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/bssa/article-abstract/98/4/1720/341930 Mazzini, A., Svensen, H., Etiope, G., Onderdonk, N. and Banks, D., 2011. Fluid origin, gas fluxes and plumbing system in the sediment-hosted Salton Sea Geothermal System (California, USA). Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 205(3-4), pp.67-83. http://folk.uio.no/hensven/Mazzini_JVGR_11.pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377027311001405 Onderdonk, N., Mazzini, A., Shafer, L. and Svensen, H., 2011. Controls on the geomorphic expression and evolution of gryphons, pools, and caldera features at hydrothermal seeps in the Salton Sea Geothermal Field, southern California. Geomorphology, 130(3-4), pp.327-342. http://folk.uio.no/hensven/Onderdonk_GeoM_2011_Salton_seeps.pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169555X11001838 Yours, Paul H.- 2 replies
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Last week I had the opportunity to go on a Bakersfield dig for Miocene shark and mammal fossils with @caldigger @Kurt Komoda and @MrR We had a good time. While there I found a tooth that I'm not exactly sure of. I believe it's a toothed cetacean (whale) and am leaning towards a Sperm Whale but am not sure. Any ideas? The tip of the crown is busted but most of the tooth is intact. Please help me identify this one.
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