Paleolandscape

In our final paleolandscape, artist John Francis depicts the drier brushy savanna with Lake Borrego, the streams and riparian forest in the background. The mountains are being uplifted and a rain shadow is forming.

The Setting

​What the rocks tell us:

​Tufa
    Deposited along lake margins
        From mineral rich alkaline water
        Marks the shoreline of Lake Borrego

Biotite
    Mica rich mineral
        Erodes into flat thin fragile sheets
        Presence in sediments indicates local
         rock source

Volcanic Ash
    Can dated using radiometric methods
    Closely spaced ash layers are in the
        Borrego Badlands
    Bishop Ash is dated at 0.78 ma

The Current Environment

From the ABDSP Visitors Center overlook, the Santa Rosa Mountains and Font's Point have been lifted up, changing the Borrego Valley.  

Photograph by Richard Ingwall, Anza-Borrego Desert Paleontology Society
​
​

The Animals

In our paleolandscape we see:

1. Red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus)
2. Southern Mammoth, extinct (Mammuthus meridionalis)
3. Columbian Mammoth, extinct (Mammuthus columbi)
4. Llama, extinct (Hemiauchenia sp.)
5. Yesterday's camel, extinct (Camelops hesternus)
6. Wolf coyote (Canis priscolatrans)
7. Coachwhip snake (Masticophis flagellum)
8. California quail (Callipepla californica)
9. Rattlesnake (Crotalus sp.)
10. Ground squirrel (Spermophilus sp.)
11. Scott's horse, extinct (Equus scotti)
12. Crowned leopard lizard (Gambelia corona)
13. Mohave Yucca (Yucca schidigera)

The Fossils

Mammoths

Photographs from Fossil Treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert
Photograph by Barbara Marrs