Vertebrate Fossil From The El Paso Mountains

Kern County, California

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.

A camel metapodial (also called a cannon bone) from the Late Miocene Dove Spring Formation of the Ricardo Group, El Paso Mountains, Kern County, California; in actual size, the specimen is 39 centimeters long (roughly 15 and one-half inches). It is likely from a camel. Identified by Dr. Xiaoming Wang of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. According to Dr. Robert Emory (National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution), who supplied some additional information, the specimen is likely from the rear leg, so it is technically a metatarsal. Dr. Emry says that the metatarsal is "formed of the fusion of two metatarsals (same as in cattle, deer, etc). At the distal end (toward the left in the image) it divides the separate ends of the original two metatarsals, and the joint ends are broken off--this is where the toe bones would articulate. This bone is between the hock and the ground in ungulates--in you the metatarsals are betweebn your ankle and your toes."

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