Not too long ago, I uploaded my two new paleontology-related pages about fossil plants in California's Sierra Nevada area.
First is High Sierra Nevada Fossil Plants, Alpine County, California over at http://inyo3.coffeecup.com/highsierra/highsierra.html . It's about a visit to a rather spectacular-setting 7 million year-old (late Miocene) fossil leaf and petrified wood locality situated above the local timberline in California's High Sierra Nevada district. Features a detailed text, with on-site photographs and images of representative fossil specimens.
Also included is an overview of the paleobotany and vertebrate paleontology along the general route to the High Sierra fossil site (text and photos). Three Tertiary Period geologic rock formations exposed in California's Gold Country, western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, yield locally plentiful leaves and mineralized skeletal material from mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and fish (the extinct sabertooth salmon, for example): the middle Eocene Ione Formation (leaves); the late Oligocene to early Miocene Valley Springs Formation (leaves); and the late mid Miocene to late Pliocene Mehrten Formation (leaves and vertebrate fossils).
My second new paleontology page is Fossil Plants At The Chalk Bluff Hydraulic Gold Mine, California over at http://inyo3.coffeecup.com/auriferousgravels/auriferousgravels.html . All about a visit to the famed Chalk Bluffs Flora, western foothills of California's Sierra Nevada, northern Mother Lode country, where the leaves, seeds, flowering structures, and petrified woods from some 70 species of plants have been described from the middle Eocene auriferous gravels exposed by hydraulic gold miners in the mid to late 1800s. Includes a detailed text, with images of fossils and on-site photographs.
First is High Sierra Nevada Fossil Plants, Alpine County, California over at http://inyo3.coffeecup.com/highsierra/highsierra.html . It's about a visit to a rather spectacular-setting 7 million year-old (late Miocene) fossil leaf and petrified wood locality situated above the local timberline in California's High Sierra Nevada district. Features a detailed text, with on-site photographs and images of representative fossil specimens.
Also included is an overview of the paleobotany and vertebrate paleontology along the general route to the High Sierra fossil site (text and photos). Three Tertiary Period geologic rock formations exposed in California's Gold Country, western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, yield locally plentiful leaves and mineralized skeletal material from mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and fish (the extinct sabertooth salmon, for example): the middle Eocene Ione Formation (leaves); the late Oligocene to early Miocene Valley Springs Formation (leaves); and the late mid Miocene to late Pliocene Mehrten Formation (leaves and vertebrate fossils).
My second new paleontology page is Fossil Plants At The Chalk Bluff Hydraulic Gold Mine, California over at http://inyo3.coffeecup.com/auriferousgravels/auriferousgravels.html . All about a visit to the famed Chalk Bluffs Flora, western foothills of California's Sierra Nevada, northern Mother Lode country, where the leaves, seeds, flowering structures, and petrified woods from some 70 species of plants have been described from the middle Eocene auriferous gravels exposed by hydraulic gold miners in the mid to late 1800s. Includes a detailed text, with images of fossils and on-site photographs.