Posted on 05/21/2021 12:17:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It started with a petrified tree, half-buried in the mud of the Mokelumne River watershed in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The site intrigued Greg Francek, a ranger for East Bay Municipal Utility District, as he was walking the valley last summer.
He inspected further, and what he recently discovered led to one of the most significant fossil discoveries in California history.
Advertisement "I looked around the area further and I found a second tree," Francek said in an EBMUD statement released this week, documenting the discovery. "And then a third and so on. After finding dozens of trees I realized that what I was looking at was the remains of a petrified forest."
Petrified wood comes from trees that were buried in the fine-grained sediments of deltas, floodplains or volcanic ash beds, and turned to stone over millions of years.
After three weeks of surveying the site, Francek made an even more curious discovery.
"I located the first vertebrate fossils," he said. "What I didn't comprehend at the time was the amazing fact that I was looking at the bones of great beasts that had roamed this landscape millions of years ago."
Francek reached out to experts in paleontology and geology from across the country to come inspect the bones, and they're still there today making historic finds.
Those great beasts include mastodons (elephant-like creatures with unique teeth; the name means "nipple tooth"), gomphotheres (ancestral elephants, but with four tusks) and, incredibly, 400-pound salmon with spiked teeth, among others still to be identified. They even found camel fossils.
The bones are thought to be from the Miocene era, around 10 millions years ago. The site, the Mokelumne River watershed, is where some 1.4 million Bay Area residents get their drinking water. EBMUD has owned and managed 28,000 acres of watershed land there for a century.
"The discovery is highly significant because of both the sheer number and diversity of specimens found. Few other fossil discoveries like this exist in California," said Dr. Russell Shapiro of the Chico State Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences in a statement. “The bones paint a clearer picture of life 10 million years ago when animals evolved from living in forests to grassland as the landscape changed."
Mastodon remains were last found in California by the agency in 1947 during pipeline construction in Contra Costa County. But the current trove of fossils is the largest and most diverse in the state's history.
"Since this is one of the more significant paleontological finds in California, researchers still have a lot of questions like why are all these fossils in this location? How did they die? What happened and when?" researchers wrote. "The study of this site may take years."
Find more information and photos of the discovery on EBMUD's excellent virtual presentation, here.
I have to chuckle at the lengths these “scholars” go to, to avoid mentioning the Worldwide Flood of Noah as a prime candidate for when the death of those creatures, and inundation of those trees took place. I hope people from several of the Creation Research organizations are participating in the inspection of that site.
Blmk
I believe the La Brea tar pits find something every month
I believe the La Brea tar pits find something every month
Fascinating stuff, and exciting; but I felt compelled to fix some of it. Petrified wood is made where volcanic ash is laid down AND where Yellowstone-like hot, bubbling steampots of slurry break down into kaolinite, which then goes into solution in acidic, brackish pools.
Anyway, petrified wood is my passion, and I know for a fact it is created in a relatively short time (otherwise there'd be no wood left to petrify; plus experiments have been done showing significant quartz formation within 15 years).
Geological disaster, like a landslide or similar..................
How about Noah’s flood? That may be the reason why so many bones were found in one place. It might have been a dry area where animals were herded and gathered only to drown.
Very cool!
The site, the Mokelumne River watershed, is where some 1.4 million Bay Area residents get their drinking water.
Why are the wealthy people of the Bay area drinking the water belonging to the poor people 100 miles distant?
incredibly, 400-pound salmon with spiked teeth....................Gonna need a bigger net..................
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So you’re telling me my 15lb test Trilene Big Game might not do the trick?
Rocks around the clock tonight.
Why isn’t there a coresponding layer from that time covering all of he Earth?
Like the 400 pound salmon?
And a REALLY big closet back then.
These finds wouldn’t be rare had they occurred across the entire planet 4,500-4,000 years ago, now, would they?
“They even found camel fossils.”
400-pound spiked-tooth salmon fishes gots to eat, too!
See? No one listens to me! I’ve been telling everyone for MILLIONS OF YEARS - NOT to go into the water! There are things in there that want to EAT you! ;)
Was he wearing a mask on this hike?? He may have damaged the environment by spreading ChiVi.
So when did this ranger make this find?
I didn’t see and the article didn’t load properly for me.
Wow!!!!
You are right. Have you seen the picture of the iron ladder in a cave that is completely covered over in stone?
From the article
“The site intrigued Greg Francek, a ranger for East Bay Municipal Utility District, as he was walking the valley last summer.”
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