Paleontology
Before coming to the Western Science Center I worked at the Virginia Museum of Natural History as Curator of Paleontology. My primary field site during that time was the Carmel Church Quarry in eastern Virginia, a remarkable location with multiple fossiliferous beds spanning 60 million years of time. During my
Geology
Each December, Brett and I try to spend a few vacation days in the small California coastal town of Morro Bay. Morro Bay (the town) is named for Morro Bay (the bay), an estuary than runs parallel to the coast for about 6 km. Morro Bay is the only protected
Miocene
Besides the proboscidean tooth I talked about last week, our recent excavation in the Miocene Cajon Valley Formation turned up other interesting remains. Because these sediments were deposited in a fast-flowing stream bed, we don't typically find skeletons. Most of the identifiable remains are isolated teeth, and most
Paleontology
Last Monday, several of our staff members visited a fossil locality on National Forest Service land in San Bernardino County that we've been excavating for a number of years under an NFS permit. The deposit exposes a conglomerate of the Cajon Valley Formation, which is middle Miocene in