Journal Entries (Work in Progress)
- Detailed Species Accounts can be found at the links below:
- Birds
- Non-Avian Organisms
Our first full day of the trip was spent in the the Marble Mountains, which are well-known for Lower Cambrian formations, including the Latham Shale Lagerstätte, containing 500 million year old Olenelloid Trilobite fossils and numerous Brachiopods. We hiked up into the hills a bit, and then went to work with pickaxes.
The next morning, we packed up our camp (we’d be staying the remaining nights at another site), and headed to Kelso Dunes, an active – and impressive – sand dune habitat, the largest field of aeolian deposits in the Mojave Desert.
9/10: Emigrant Pass, Nopah Range, CA
By 16:30, we’d arrived at Emigrant’s Pass, and hiked around to make some initial observations and measurements. This area is known for a couple of different types of quartzite: the top Zebrisky layer, and then a lower layer with pink, sugary “squeaky” Emigrant Pass quartzite. Between the two, there is a trilobite rich layer: the “Eagle Mountain Shale.”
9/11: Emigrant Pass, Nopah Range, CA
Today, we spent the morning mapping the Carrera Formation, looked for a few more fossils in the trilobite bed near camp, and then headed into the town of Shoshone for some afternoon and evening fun. I did manage to see some great wildlife, including a Chuckwalla, and a Coyote.
Let me know what you think!