Hi, my name is Blake Vella and I am thirteen years old. I am new to the Mother Lode Mineral Society/Junior Rock Hound group. I have always wanted to be a paleontologist ever since I was about three years old, but I love geology to. Dinosaurs are my life. Anything with dinosaurs in it I'm interested.

As I sad I have just joined the Mother Load Mineral Society and therefore I have just gone on my first field trip. I thought it was fun and the view was beautiful the mountains looked like they were painted. The trip that I went on was the shark tooth hunt at Ant Hill. I collected lots of specimens. I had tons of fun.

It was so fun at Ant Hill. Even thought we were looking for shark teeth the group leader told us there was a high possibility of finding bones. What I didn't know was it was a higher possibility of finding bones than teeth so I was really happy. Also the bones along with some shark teeth were just lying there on the ground. I found most of the teeth in the ground and most bone on the ground. I found 30-35 bones and about 5 teeth. I think I'm going to stay in the mother load mineral society for a long time to come.

 Hi Hounders!
WOW! What a turnout! I didn't know so many of you were interested in fossils. Ninety people signed in for this trip to the Miocene marine fossil beds outside of Bakersfield. They came from one end of California to the other and a few from Nevada. After orientation, waiver sign in and precaution speeches we broke off to begin our uphill hike to the fossil trenches on two hillsides. The day was partly cloudy and mild, a great day for digging and sifting.

In spite of a 5-6 foot long Northern Pacific rattlesnake basking in the sun while coiled in one of the trenches, everyone I saw was having fun and finding bones and teeth from a wide variety of extinct Mako sharks and 6-gilled cow shark including a very large tooth from a Big Tooth Mako at least 3 inches in length. I swore I heard the theme from "JAWS" echoing through the hills. Many more people found teeth from the Hook Tooth Mako (found now only in this one area of the world). Other teeth that I saw found were from seals, porpoises, and rays. Some finds I couldn't identify. Among the bones found were whale and fish vertebrae, ribs, clavicles and a nice 2 inch finger bone in excellent shape from the flipper of a whale or sea line. Yes, a very productive day.

Thankfully, this isn't government land with its fossil regulations but real estate land still open, for now to recreation, collecting and livestock grazing. The downside is this area is slated for homes, mini malls and gas stations. Thus, will close one of the richest Miocene marine fossil beds in the world. A sign of the times.

Shep Koss CFMS Field Trip South co-chair

 

 

Casey & Bud digging for sharks teeth