Anza-Borrego Desert Paleontology

 Colorado Desert District Paleontologist George Jefferson stabilizes a fossil horse jaw before removing it to the preparation laboratory.

Welcome

With the activation of this website in November 2008,  paleontology at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park moves into a new era of its history.  That history goes back more than 230 years, to the observations of Captain Juan Bautista de Anza's expedition chaplain, Fray Pedro Font, who pondered the implications of finding ancient seashells in the desert.  The written record ramifies forward from Father Font's musings, by way of many remarkable individuals and several great institutions.  From notes and journals to detailed expedition reports and scholarly research papers, the story has grown.   But only now, with the power and flexibility of the internet available to so many of us, can that history and the rock and shell and bone on which it is based be studied and searched by anyone with the interest and will to do so.  We, the ABDSP Paleontology Society, hope that this website will be a gateway with many keys for all those who wish to explore the world of paleontology at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Sharron Sussman November 2008