Paleontologist Josh Bonde's superlative discoveries have included fossils from Nevada's only Ice Age dire wolf and the oldest land animal ever found here. The Fallon native and his students are continuing to dig up mammoths, camels, and bison at Tule Springs State Park. They also have ongoing projects at Valley of Fire State Park and in northern and central Nevada. Here's a look at some of Bonde's discoveries as well as his work at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum.
This 230-million-year-old vertebra recently was found at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park by a group of avid hikers. Not sure if it was a fossil or a rock, they contacted Bonde, who verified the fossil dates back to the late Triassic period, when dinosaurs were just evolving. It is from the same layer of rock that produced the Petrified Forest National Park in eastern Arizona. Bonde said the bone is from the oldest land animal found in the state and likely belongs to a crocodile-like creature that was approximately 13 feet long.
Bonde found this primitive Tyrannosaur tooth at Valley of Fire State Park. It is from the same family as the Tyrannosaurus Rex, but raptor size. The radiometric date for this tooth is 98 million years old.
Bonde created the Paleontology Lab at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum so he and his UNLV students can share on their discoveries. Museum visitors can watch the work, ask questions, and even touch some of the fossils. Bonde serves on the museum's board of directors.
Bonde and his crew of geoscience students excavated this camel hand bone from Tule Springs State Park in the summer of 2012. Located at the north end of the Las Vegas Valley, Tule Springs preserves a diverse plant and animal assemblage from the last Ice Age.
Bonde holds a Columbian mammoth tusk excavated from Tule Springs State Park in 2010. The plaster jacket around the tusk holds it together to preserve the fossil. Columbian mammoths are the stars of Tule Springs, being the largest and most common of the large animal remains found there. This tusk is thought to be around 14,000 years old.
At one of the fossil preparation stations at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum Paleontology Lab, volunteers are working on an Ice Age bison bone. It sits next to a 145-million-year-old dinosaur bone from Utah.
If you think you have stumbled upon a fossil, Bonde recommends leaving it alone. Leave a small marker so the find can be found again and then notify the university. Any fossils found on state park land are now kept locally at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. Typically in the past, fossils from Nevada were taken out of state for curation.
