"Wow!" "Look, look here. Is it a dinosaur? A T-Rex? A deer? What is it?" Those who've chased elusive fossils and cracked concretions know these gleeful questions well. The rush and excitement of finding a perfectly preserved skull, tooth or even wee toe bone from the distant past is always a delight.
In the John Day Formation near Kimberly, Oregon, more than a 100 groups of mammals have been found all beautifully preserved in the early Miocene (37 – 20 mya) strata. The familiar are found along side the more exotic... many of the fossil mammals found are familiar as we have domesticated their distant cousins and live in close quarters with them today - dogs, cats, swine, rodents and horses.
We also find more exotic species - oreodonts, camels and rhinoceras along with plants from an ancient deciduous forest. Look closely at the picture here of a future paleontologist from Vancouver Island holding a well preserved Oreodont skull. The preservation is exquisite! I'll be leading a field trip to the John Day Formation July 3-5, 2009. I'll post our finds here for you to see what new mystery has been unearthed.
