“Boreotrophon and the Importance of Studying Coastal Erosion; Act II”

 

Good morning beautiful Monterey Bay!  This is a 3 million year old fossil of the small marine muricid gastropod genus Boreotrophon, perhaps something close to B. vancouverensis which was first described as a new species by our colleague Shawn Wiedrick et. al. in 2019. This little fellow is known from living specimens today in the colder waters of British Columbia to Alaska. Up until the discovery of this specimen in a rockfall here in Santa Cruz 4 years ago, this species didn’t have a fossil record, if it is indeed this species. More work is necessary to reveal its taxonomic affinities. This discovery is further evidence of the great changes our Monterey Bay has seen over time, perhaps experiencing colder waters in the past, as well as highlighting the importance of conserving and studying our dynamic coastline for what it reveals about the ancient history of our area.  

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“THE DEVELOPMENTAL ARCHITECTURE OF SIX ARTICULATED ROCKFALLS FROM 2020 to JANUARY, 2023: RF10.20A-F”

 

One of the more important pieces that I didn’t fully convey in the video is that from this and other rockfalls happening here, several hundred in all, my colleagues and I have recorded from the rock history record several dozen fossil species that indicate the potential for much warmer periods of water in Monterey Bay if you go back several million years.  These species have never been known from this region in the past and, of the ones that are not extinct today, represent species with modern ranges that are much further south.  More data needs to be collected and analyzed before we can make definitive conclusions, but the outlook initially is for periods of warmer water in Monterey Bay and Eustatic sea levels much higher than today by several hundreds of feet.  And we are also discovering and describing new species that have never been known to science until now as well, all of which is very exciting!   “This is the story of six articulated rock falls in Santa Cruz, California, that I mapped over time: it all started very small with a very small rock fall back in 2020…

“Giant Rockfall”

https://youtu.be/iJFcIhAAy8I 

Here is a rockfall from 2021 that is a part of my Rockfall Dynamics study site that reveals numerous storm events along with the fossilized creatures that are associated with them. I have been studying and documenting these rockfalls now for several decades and have identified a number of causal factors and numerous patterns and processes involving the coastal geology of this area of Monterey Bay. This study is revealing several never-before documented geological processes involved with coastal rockfall dynamics in active continental margins. In a couple of cases I have been able to reinforce my understanding by accurately predicting events and I hope to be able to eventually make novel non-invasive mitigation recommendations once I have enough longitudinal data.  

#Paleontologist, #paleontology,  #SantaCruz, #Monterey, #santacruzcounty, #mitigation, #mitigationpaleontology, #pacificpaleontology, @pacificpaleontology, #beachfossils, #fossil, #fossilhunting, #fieldwork, #beachcombing, #santacruzmuseum, #MontereyBay, #SCMNH, #universityofcaliforniamuseumofpaleontology, #UCMP, #californiaacademyofscience, #academyofscience,  #ucmpberkeley, #LACMIP, #NHMLA, #Rockfalls, #Coastalerosion, #Dynamiccoast, #Landslide, #Stratigraphy, #GeologicalProcesses, #Geology, #FossilFriday.