“And… That’s a Wrap”

We are wrapping up our first paleontological mitigation contract here in my hometown of Scotts Valley and we took this opportunity for a promotional marketing photoshoot over the weekend for our new business website.  Pacific Paleontology was hired to monitor a small subdivision construction project here that involved digging down into the Santa Margarita Formation layer of rock, which is about 10-12 million years old.  This is a rock layer that is common in our area, is one that I have been studying here for the past four decades, and have discovered many hundreds of fossils from, primarily sharks.  The marine vertebrate fauna includes toothed and baleen whales, sharks, fish, rays, skates, dolphins, porpoises, sea turtles, birds, pinnipeds (eared and earless seals and primitive walruses), sirenians, and desmostylians, among others.  Marine clams, snails, and other invertebrates also occur here and are highly diverse in the local region.  Terrestrial vertebrates, such as camels and horses, as well as rare woody plants are also known to occur in the Santa Margarita.  No fossils were uncovered during construction in the massive medium-grained unconsolidated sands that used to make up the bottom of the ocean here.  Now that the grading is completed, Pacific Paleontology is tasked with producing the reports that will show compliance of the project to federal, state, and local legislation for the conservation of protected historical resources.  These regulations are relatively new within the past 20 years, and our understanding of the evolutionary history of life in California and elsewhere has advanced significantly due to the recovery of fossils through these protections.  As a coincidental aside, I worked closely onsite with Tracy Miller of MTM Tractor.  As it turns out, Tracy and I have a history together!  The last time we saw each other he was in jr. high and I was in high school and we were working together at a local restaurant in town; so we had some catching up to do!  Small world!!!

For more information on the fossils of the Santa Margarita Formation check out our video on the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History website: https://www.santacruzmuseum.org/naturalist-night-santa-cruz-sandhills/ 

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