Not too long ago, I uploaded my new paleontology-related page to High Sierra Nevada Fossil Plants, Alpine County, Caifornia. It's about a visit to a rather spectacular 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).
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).
