Vertebrate Fossil From The El Paso Mountains

Kern County, California

A vertebrate fossil spotted several years ago in exposures of the late Miocene Dove Spring Formation that at that date occurred well outside the boundaries of Red Rock Canyon State Park on Public Lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management; today, the bone-bearing exposures where this specimen had weathered out on the surface now lie within the rather recently expanded borders of Red Rock Canyon State Park, California.

Here is a distal (lower) end of a camel tibia--those grooves on the artiulating surface connect at the ankle joint with the astragalus; in camels, this joint is at the hock, well above ground. In humans, this is the joint that moves in the ankle when the foot moves up and down. Late Miocene Dove Spring Formation of the Ricardo Group, El Paso Mountain, Kern County, California; in actual size, the specimen is 45mm across. Identified by Dr. Xiaoming Wang of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Additional information supplied by Dr. Robert Emry, National Museum Of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

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