Description:
I’m selling these micro mammal and bird bones in the cigar
box holding the smaller specimen boxes with the original masking
tape labels from the collector. Judging from the price of the
cigars, then at 16 cents each, I would place the cigar box from
the late 1950s to early 1960’s. Most likely the general
time the fossils were collected. I estimate the number of fossils
at 200-300 total. They are clearly from a Brea (tar) pit. The
bones are sorted by type: femur, teeth, digits etc. Twelve small
boxes total. This is just a marvelous collection with lots of
interesting provenance, and perhaps, my favorite acquisition
of the lot.
At the end of October, 2010 I acquired a large percentage of the
Paul Spinner Collection from his fossil estate manager. Paul was
a Native American who worked for the U.S. Forrest Service and lived
in the western side of Kern County, California. During the 1950s
through the early 1980s he accumulated his collection from Fresno
county, the Lompoc area fish beds, Sharktooth Hill bone beds, Kern
county Brea (tar) pits, etc. As his reputation grew for having
the largest privately held and valuable fossil collection from
these areas, he developed a special relationship with the University
of California Santa Barbara department of Paleontology as well
as the La Brea Tar Pits staff. This unique collection of Southern
California fossils was primarily from the Cenozoic, with an emphasis
on the Miocene.
Unfortunately,
the collection was left with no identifications for time, location,
species or age. This is where
the mystery lies.
The vast majority of the specimens are easy to identify under the
trained eye of a commercial dealer, or paleontologist. Locations
are somewhat tricky, however. The matrix surrounding the fossil,
or the fossil itself often is evidence of location. These dire
mammal remains show the dark oily looking exterior of a Brea (tar)
pit specimen. But, were these specimens discovered in the LaBrea
tar pits of Los Angeles? The estate manager of the collection told
me that Paul Spinner had collected in the LaBrea pits, possibly
with the permission of one of the academic institutions he was
affiliated with. It is possible he collected these back in the
50’s or 60’s before the pits became a strictly administered
academic sanctuary. Otherwise they came from some other Brea (asphalt)
pit located in the S. California, Kern County area. We’ll
never know for sure. Paul died back in the 80’s and his collection
sat packed away for over 25 years until now.
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