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'Wondrous': Ranger stumbles onto biggest Calif. fossil find ever
KSBW ^ | May 21, 2021 | Andrew Chamings

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.


TOPICS: History; Outdoors; Science
KEYWORDS: andrewchamings; california; camel; camels; elephants; fossil; giantsalmon; godsgravesglyphs; gomphotheres; gregfrancek; ksbw; mastodon; mastodons; mokelumneriver; pelosi; salmon; sierranevada; thesalmondrowned
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To: nickcarraway

Chico State! Well then they all died from: Global Warming/Climate Change, White Supremacy Racism, Lack of significant gun control, Ozone Depletion, Over Grazing by Domestic Cattle.

Demonstrations and protest marches will be held beginning tomorrow


41 posted on 05/21/2021 2:29:54 PM PDT by dirtymac ( Now Is The Time For All Good Men To ComeTo The Aid Of Their Country! NOW)
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To: vis a vis

Thanks.

I guess I missed that.


42 posted on 05/21/2021 2:31:37 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: gundog

It does, in enough places to show that the entire planet was involved. Vast areas in the CONUS contain such places, called megasequences. In other areas, the runoff as the flood waters receded caused erosion that carried much of it to lower elevations, including into the oceans.

If you desire to know more, contact ICR in Dallas, TX. They have numerous books on the subject, containing copious photo and other examples which demonstrate that the global deluge is the only honest, logical answer as to why present conditions exist. Many aftermaths of Mount St. Helens show that things once considered to require millions of hears to take place, actually can occur within much less time; some having already happened since 1980.


43 posted on 05/21/2021 2:59:00 PM PDT by Tucker39 ("It is impossible so to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible." George Washington )
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To: Tucker39
Example of the last claim, please.

There have been many flooding event over millions of years. These fossils are dated to 10 million years ago.

44 posted on 05/21/2021 3:22:22 PM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: Tucker39

I wouldn’t be taken in by the ICR hucksters, were I you.


45 posted on 05/21/2021 3:45:37 PM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: nickcarraway

It’s bull hockey. Mount Saint Helens eruption created petrified trees. It’s just extreme heat and pressure. Not millions of years....yawn.


46 posted on 05/21/2021 4:23:36 PM PDT by panzerkamphwageneinz (0 )
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To: BereanBrain

No ladder, but a spike of some kind i think. In Kentucky, I believe.


47 posted on 05/21/2021 4:32:41 PM PDT by Migraine
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To: gundog

Hey gundog
You can find numerous examples if you are truly interested. Maybe you are just picking a fight?
Anyway, Institute for Creation Research is a very good place to look.
Also, Dr. Walt Brown wrote a book titled In the Beginning. Entire text of that book is online. Check it out, please.


48 posted on 05/21/2021 4:41:25 PM PDT by Honest Nigerian
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To: Beagle8U

“...you’ll find Ally Oops grave.”

LOL! Well-played.


49 posted on 05/21/2021 5:00:19 PM PDT by HKMk23 (INADEQUACY: If this keeps up, we may not be able to let you help us anymore.)
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To: Honest Nigerian

What they fo is not science. They mold evidence to fit their narrative.


50 posted on 05/21/2021 5:04:13 PM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: gundog

No offense, truly. But I really feel sorry for you.
Goodbye.


51 posted on 05/21/2021 5:51:38 PM PDT by Tucker39 ("It is impossible so to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible." George Washington )
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To: All
petrified forest, eh? ...seems like a good place to hang out until the heat blows over...

Humphrey Bogart in The Petrified Forest film trailer

52 posted on 05/21/2021 6:13:10 PM PDT by SteveH
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To: nickcarraway

Found Pelosi out walking??


53 posted on 05/21/2021 6:20:56 PM PDT by HP8753 (Live Free!!!! .............or don't. )
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To: Magnum44

They find cameloid fossils in Florida rivers.


54 posted on 05/21/2021 6:26:34 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: Tucker39; SunkenCiv; Red Badger; BenLurkin; All

How can this 10 million year old Miocene site be connected with a Worldwide Flood that only occurred after God created man 6000 year ago?


55 posted on 05/21/2021 7:21:07 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: nickcarraway

“incredibly, 400-pound salmon with spiked teeth”

There’s some great fish in the upper reaches, above Pardee reservoir, but I haven’t caught one of those yet.

It’s as pretty as can be.


56 posted on 05/21/2021 7:36:52 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Migraine

” turned to stone over millions of yearsabout 75 years”

At least 5 “extinct” volcanoes within 50 miles as the crow flies.


57 posted on 05/21/2021 7:42:58 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Mariner

That’s the way it works!


58 posted on 05/21/2021 7:49:35 PM PDT by Migraine
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To: Rebelbase
Kamaloid?


59 posted on 05/21/2021 8:29:07 PM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic...)
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To: nickcarraway

where some 1.4 million Bay Area residents get their drinking water.

No wonder it tastes funny...like something died...


60 posted on 05/21/2021 8:37:30 PM PDT by Adder ("Can you be more stupid?" is a question, not a challenge.)
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