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.

Here's a different view of the same right proximal scapula (shoulder blade) from a large camel seen in the previous image; it's from the Late Miocene Dove Spring Formation of the Ricardo Group, El Paso Mountains, Kern County, California; in actual size, the specimen is 27 centimeters long. The circular articulating surface/socket is 7 and a half centimeters in diameter. Identified by Dr. Hugh Wagner, San Diego Natural History Museum and Dr. Robert Emry of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. According to Dr. Robert Emry, the socket is called the genoid fossa, which articulates with the head of the humerus (upper arm bone) at the shoulder joint.

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