Park Ranger Stumbles Upon Treasure Trove of Several-Million-Year-Old Fossils in Northern California #California #fossil #paleontology #miocene #mastodon

The treasure trove discovery began when park ranger and naturalist Greg Francek from the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) first stumbled upon a petrified forest while on patrol in the Mokelumne River Watershed, located in the Sierra Nevada. (Jason Halley, California State University, Chico)

Smithsonian Magazine has a story about the discovery of some Miocene fossils in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.  The eight million year old fossils were discovered by Park ranger and naturalist Greg Francek while patrolling the Mokelumne River Watershed.  The treasure trove consists of petrified wood, a mastodon skull, a rhino skeleton, a giant tortoise, and much more.

In the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, paleontologists have uncovered a collection of fossils, including an eight-million-year-old mastodon skull with both tusks intact, a rhino skeleton, a giant tortoise, 600 petrified trees, and many more specimens. Dating back to the Miocene epoch, the site is considered one of the most significant fossil discoveries in California history, reports Andrew Chamings for SFGate.

"Few other fossil discoveries like this exist in California," says California State University paleontologist Russell Shapiro, to Ashley Gebb for Chico State Today.

Park ranger and naturalist Greg Francek from the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) first stumbled upon a petrified forest while on patrol in the Mokelumne River Watershed, located in the Sierra Nevada, reports the Chico State Today.

"I looked around the area further, and I found a second tree," Francek says in a statement. "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."

After three weeks of surveying and uncovering more fossilized pieces of the forest, Francek found what appeared to be vertebrate fossils, Chico State Today reports. From there, EBMUD reached out to paleontologists and geologists from California State University, Chico, to take a closer look.