Sharktooth Hill, Friday's Dig Pictures

[Sasquatch]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/428193_326500864076993_187622694631478_979920_1177624223_n.jpg

In that picture, what exactly are you digging for? As in why is everyone going for the bottom of the mound? Do you not find anything higher up? Also, do you avoid the iron (?) deposits the man in the orange is by, or or actually go for them? Sorry, my only fossil hunting experience is walking along shores and picking them up.

[Auspex]

https://fbcdn-sphoto...177624223_n.jpg

In that picture, what exactly are you digging for? As in why is everyone going for the bottom of the mound? Do you not find anything higher up? Also, do you avoid the iron (?) deposits the man in the orange is by, or or actually go for them? Sorry, my only fossil hunting experience is walking along shores and picking them up.

There is a discrete and distinct "bone bed" layer, where the fossils are; this layer is what makes "Shark Tooth Hill" fabulous, and is what gets most of the attention.

[Quarry411]

https://fbcdn-sphoto...177624223_n.jpg

In that picture, what exactly are you digging for? As in why is everyone going for the bottom of the mound? Do you not find anything higher up? Also, do you avoid the iron (?) deposits the man in the orange is by, or or actually go for them? Sorry, my only fossil hunting experience is walking along shores and picking them up.

The fossil layer they are digging is about 14" to 16" high, and runs at the bottom of the trench. Only a few fossils have been found above this layer in the last twenty years. The "iron" area to the man in orange's left is actually a brittle concretion of sorts. They have fossils embedded in them, but extraction usually breaks the fossils apart - so we just leave them. But the sharkteeth that come out around the area are orange in color.

If you look at this wider picture, you can just see the man in orange near the back. The "mound" is really a hillside that has had a deep cut carved into it.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.326500380743708.78246.187622694631478&type=3#!/photo.php?fbid=326500507410362&set=a.326500380743708.78246.187622694631478&type=3&theater

[Paleoc]

Thanks for the links, good information. I notice that the range of the Northern and Southern Pacific Rattlesnake do not overlap so, I think, since they look so similar <and the picture that started this is too small for my eyes to pick up details>, the question is where does Sharktooth Hill fall on that map? Seems as if that would be definitive as to which one it is.

Bakersfield falls right about where the Green and the Red touch (or almost touch), so it could be either species. From the description and pictures, the spots on the northern are more rectangular/elongated which is what the animal in the picture seems to have.

[siteseer]

Yes, looking for fossils in the many feet of sediment above the bonebed is usually fruitless (other than the concretions right above the layer). Years ago, a friend tried his luck for a few hours and found one nice, large lemon shark unheard of for that latitude in that area especially in the Middle Miocene but that was the only fossil he found.

Marine vertebrate teeth are also found well below the bonebed, but again, they are uncommon finds.

Fossils can be found by beachcombing along some stretches of the California coast as well.

...why is everyone going for the bottom of the mound? Do you not find anything higher up?...Sorry, my only fossil hunting experience is walking along shores and picking them up.