“Giant Rockfall”

Here is a rockfall from 2021 that is a part of my Rockfall Dynamics study site that reveals numerous storm events along with the fossilized creatures that are associated with them. I have been studying and documenting these rockfalls now for several decades and have identified a number of causal factors and numerous patterns and…[Read more]

“PALEO PUPS; THE OUTCROP DOGS”Pups and Paleo have a long long history together!  Having a good dog or two along on a paleo dig makes the whole experience come alive, so to speak, and sets the tone for a wonderful time for all.  Pups in paleo go back into antiquity from Mary Anning in the 18th century to Mary Leakey in the 19th.  Anning, one of the…[Read more]

“Rock Removal is About to Get a Lot Easier!”When a fossil is found in the rock, paleontologists don’t actually just dig the fossil itself out of the rock but they remove it along with a block of the surrounding rock, called matrix, to later be prepared further in the lab. Like this 4 million year old ?Macoma sp. clam you see here, the matrix needs…[Read more]

“A Good Week for Business, and More”I am pleased to announce that “Pacific Paleontology”, our new paleontological mitigation venture, has been chosen to receive a $5000.00 U.S. Small Business Administration Dream Fund Grant! The grant will be used to buy essential equipment that is needed to effectively preserve and archive fossil discove…[Read more]

Olivella’s graveyard at Pandora’s Cave!Here is Olivella’s Graveyard (now referred to the genus Callianax) at Pandora’s Cave, New Brighton State Beach; the first shell bed unconformably overlying the finer sandstone layer immediately below it.  One can see here bivalves such as Leukoma and Macoma, a naticid, perhaps Natica clausa, and the…[Read more]

“Final Extraction, How-To with Frenamya”The *last* stage of fossil preparation typically ends with extracting it from the block of rock that it was removed with, shown here with a 4-5 million year old clam. #Paleontologist, #paleontology, #pacificpaleontology, @pacificpaleontology, #beachfossils, #SantaCruz, #santacruzcounty, #fossil, #fos…[Read more]

“An Example of Remarkably Well-Preserved fossils” Sometimes creatures are preserved astonishingly well that it boggles the mind!  From Dinosaur skin impressions, to frozen mammoths and glass insect fossils, the world of fossil preservation is incredibly bewildering!  And such was the case with the whole, unfilled, baby Arc Clams, Anadara trilin…[Read more]

Looking into the eye of the next big storm? …Capitola winter storm waves, 1-13-2019; Engaging others, whether it be students in their classrooms or the public, in scientific dialogue over global-scale natural science topics is one of the great unspoken duties, in my mind, of scientists and educators. And nowhere is that at once easier and more d…[Read more]