The Foundation: The San Joaquin Valley Paleontology Foundation was formed in 1994 after the discovery of the Fairmead Fossils in Madera County, California. The Fairmead Fossils are found at the Madera County landfill, which is located in the small town of Fairmead just south of Chowchilla. These fossils were first discovered when a scraper was moving dirt and the alert equipment operator noticed some unusual coloration of the soil. Investigation revealed a complete fossil of a Columbian Mammoth tusk, which was dated at approximately 500,000 years old. In a short time, scientists realized that the landfill was located on one of the most significant fossil beds discovered from the Pleistocene period.
Madera County is located in California’s Central Valley, a rural agricultural area with little access to museums and science centers. The San Joaquin Valley Paleontology Foundation was formed to develop tours, educational programs and other means to share the excitement of this scientific and historical treasure with local residents and with the general public.
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New Sabertooth Cat Skull Discovered |
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Fairmead Sabertooth Cat Skull (New Discovery) 
Rancho La Brea Sabertooth Cat Skull NEW SPECIES? We got a nice surprise at the end of last week in one of the plaster jackets from early 2004. Instead of the common horse, camel, etc., we have a sabertooth cat skull. It appears to be Smilodon, but the species is undertermined at present. The back of the skull is different from Smilodon fatalis, the late Pleistocene form. It could potentially be Smilodon gracilis , or perhaps it is a new form. Anyway, I got the specimen cleaned up enough to photograph it in side profile and so I thought that I would email it to you all (see Sabertooth Cat.jpg). It still needs quite a bit of preparation. All six incisors are present (at front of skull, left side of the photo). The canines are both broken, and unfortunately the the posterior teeth are gone, along with the zygomatic arch. About half of the skull is there, split a bit off center down the middle of the skull. The skull clearly sustained a fair amount of breakage prior to when it was buried in the sediment, so we are lucky to have what we got. I attached a photo (Smilodon Rancho La Brea.jpg) of a complete Smilodon skull from Rancho La Brea, taken in the same left side profile view as the Fairmead specimen, so you can compare the two a bit. Anyway, a very nice find.
Robert G. Dundas, Ph.D. Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, California State University, Fresno
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