Paleobotanist Howard Schorn supervises the "first crunch" of the backhoe at wondrously fossiliferous Lygodium Gulch, Middle Eocene Ione Formation, Ione Basin, California. Our equipment operator used superior expertise to entrench the leaf-bearing layer, ripping up plentiful huge blocks of potentially fossiliferous shales for us to split apart. Image snapped on July 30, 2002.

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.