| Vertebrate paleontologist Dr. Xiaoming Wang, with two anonymous individuals looking on, holds up a jaw from an extinct hippo-like short-legged rhinoceros, called genus Teleoceras--from the Late Miocene Dove Spring Formation of the Ricardo Group, El Paso Mountains, Kern County, California; specimen resides in the collections of The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Photograph courtesy Bob Cates. I edited and processed the image through photoshop. |
| Vertebrate paleontologist Dr. Xiaoming Wang holds up a skull, with upper jaws preserved, from an extinct bone-crushing dog called Epicyon haydeni--from the Late Miocene Dove Spring Formation of the Ricardo Group, El Paso Mountains, Kern County, California; specimen resides in the collections of The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Photograph courtesy Bob Cates. I edited and processed the image through photoshop. |
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Vertebrate paleontologist Dr. Xiaoming Wang holds a skull from an extinct skunk called Martinogale faulli (named in honor of long-time Red Rock Canyon State Park ranger Mark Faull, who collected the mammalian remain in 1974)--from the Late Miocene Dove Spring Formation of the Ricardo Group, El Paso Mountains, Kern County, California; specimen resides in the collections of The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Photograph courtesy Bob Cates. I edited and processed the image through photoshop. Dated at 9 million years old, the fossil represents the “earliest, most primitive, and smallest of all North American skunks. In life, the animal would have measured less than a foot long, including its tail, and weiged just a few ounces.” Quotes from Dr. Xiaoming Wang. |