| Top--A cast of a fossil Mastodon tooth originally collected from the Pliocene-Pleistocene Tecopa Lake Beds, roughly 600,000 years old, along side a minature replica of a mastodon skeleton. Bottom--A diorama about camel species that left behind fossil tracks in the middle Miocene China Ranch Formation. In addition to mammal tracks (ichnofossils), the China Ranch Formation also yields petrified palm and dicotlyedon wood (birch and poplar have been identified) and silicified grasses (replaced by silicon dioxide) assigned to the species Tomlinsonia stichkania. Images courtesy Wonderhussy Adventures, from a video shot at the museum in Shoshone, California, in 2023. |