Paleontologists discover first 3-toed horse from lake bed site
By Logan Bagett on Wednesday, November 30th, 2022 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories
KIMBERLY – John Day Fossil Beds Chief Paleontologist Dr. Nicholas Famoso was on KJDY’s Coffee Time recently, talking about a successful season of fossil hunting last summer. Dr. Famoso said he found a significant specimen at a site by the John Day River—where historically not many fossils have been found:
“I was just kind of, you know, poking around in a cliff face. [I was] looking and I kept finding little snail shells and little leaf fragments and things—and I looked up, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a tooth!’
It turned out that it was a partial skull to a little fossil horse. The first fossil horse that we’ve ever had to that site, and that’s pretty cool.”
Famoso said the skull belonged to a small, three-toed horse called Miohippus, and was found in a 31.6-million-year-old lake bed. Follow the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument on Facebook.
(Photo from John Day Fossil Beds National Monument’s Facebook page)
Listen to the full visit here: https://omny.fm/shows/coffee-time/november-29-john-day-fossil-beds-national-monument
