The outcrop at lower left, marked by the red backpack, is one of the most prolific leaf-bearing localities in all the Middle Eocene Ione Formation of the Ione Basin. The fossils occur in a reddish-brown, platey-weathering shale that accumulated in floodplains along the eastern shores of the vast inland sea that flooded California's Great Central Valley some 50 to 45 million years ago during early to middle Eocene geologic times. Image taken on March 11, 2004.

Please note: All fossil localities in the Ione Formation of Amador County, California, presently occur on private property; explicit permission from the land owners must be secured before collecting fossils there.