| A paleontology enthusiast explores the Coso Formation badlands, Coso Mountains, Inyo County, California. The Coso Formation yields to vertebrate paleontologists one of California's best Blancan Stage mammalian faunas--that is, the fossils are roughly 4.8 to 3.0 million years old. Almost all of the fossiliferous Coso Formation exposures now lie within the Coso Range Wilderness. This picture was taken long before such a Federal designation. |