Every Object has a Story to Tell

 

Sandhills Habitat History Update; another journey back into Deep Time.  When I started finding these strange "rocks" as a kid exploring around our ancient ocean Sandhills Habitat here in Santa Cruz, I was curious what they could possibly be, since I suspected they may not in fact be rocks.  And they aren't!  These are the crushing mouth plate "teeth" of the Sheepshead Wrasse, Semicossyphus sp., which are used to crush clams, crabs, and fish!  Interestingly, all sheepshead fish are born female and most mature into males later in life, living up to 21 years of age.  They still live in the ocean waters of Monterey Bay today!  The next time you find an interesting natural object,  it may have a fascinating story to tell you! 

And here is an excellent guide to the Sandhills Habitat "Islands" in Santa Cruz County: https://zayantesandhills.com/Zayante%20Sandhills%20Conservation%20Bank%20web/SANDHILLS%20Information.pdf

#FossilFriday, #Paleontologist, #paleontology, #pacificpaleontology, @pacificpaleontology, #beachfossils, #SantaCruz, #santacruzcounty, #fossil

 

Please consider joining Pacific Paleontology and CA State Parks for this fun family fossils walk back in time to the Pliocene Era a few million years into the past.  Free.  https://ranchodeloso.org/events/.

HAPPY NATIONAL FOSSIL DAY MONTEREY BAY 2024 FROM PACIFIC PALEONTOLOGY!

HAPPY NATIONAL FOSSIL DAY MONTEREY BAY 2024 FROM PACIFIC PALEONTOLOGY!

Grandicrepidula princeps, the Princess Slipper snail.

 

Good morning from Pacific Paleontology.  Here’s a recent 3-D scan we made of a fossil giant Grandicrepidula princeps, the Princess Slipper snail.  3D scanning has gotten a lot easier today, and we made this one with a simple app for iPhone called Photo Catch.  It took about 2 minutes to create from video and the app also has a Mac Desktop version and we use it frequently for these projects.  And even though I say the worms are parasites in the video, I'm not sure they actually caused the snail any harm; they may thus just be commensal as well.  Enjoy.

Screen washing sediments for macro- and micro-fossils

The end of our screen washing season is drawing to a close here at Pacific Paleontology with the approaching Winter rains here in Santa Cruz.  This is one of the Pliocene 4-5 million year old samples that we are running through our screen processing this week. 

A Three Dollar Morning

 

These are fossil Dendraster ashleyi or Dendraster gibbsii Sand Dollars from the

Purisima formation Here.  They are embedded in their original tomb along with

ghost shrimp burrows on the beach. These are about 5 million years old and I'm about

to extract them. Alright, here they are after I extracted them from their watery, sandy

tomb, they've been released to go back and be free again.  Back to the lab to be

prepared to go to the museum. Here we go.  This is back at our labs preparing the

sand dollars for their trip to the museum. Using glues (adhesives) and consolidants

(which are preservatives).  First we remove the sand from the sand dollars.  And the

sand has entombed them, like I said, for the last 5 million years.  And once that sand is

completely removed and brushed off, we'll apply a protective coating of consolidant

to harden the sand dollars which we're doing here.  Thanks for watching and enjoy

these beauties.  It was a three dollar morning.

#Paleontologist, #paleontology,  #SantaCruz, #Monterey, #santacruzcounty, #pacificpaleontology, @pacificpaleontology, #beachfossils, #fossil, #fossilhunting, #fieldwork, #beachcombing, #santacruzmuseum, #MontereyBay, #SCMNH, #universityofcaliforniamuseumofpaleontology, #UCMP, #californiaacademyofscience, #academyofscience,  #ucmpberkeley, 

False Alarm

 

Pacific Paleontology was recently called out to one of our paleo mitigation contract sites with the message that "bones have been found"!!  We excitedly arrived only to find this!  Neither paleontological nor archeological these bones, which were inadvertently moved from their original positions by the construction crew, are from a modern (Recent) Mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus and so not of historical importance for our team.  #paleontology, #SantaCruz, #santacruzcounty, #Monterey, #montereycounty, #paleontology, #mitigationpaleontology, #fossil, #pacificpaleontology, @pacificpaleontology, #Constructionsite, #fossilhunting, #archeology, #bones,