SR 119

Introduced by Senator Caballero
Relative to paleontology.
paleontology
WHEREAS, Fossils are the physical evidence of prehistoric life; and
WHEREAS, California’s prehistoric fossil record includes the mammals of the Pleistocene epoch, the marine animals of the Miocene epoch, the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period, and the remains of arthropods from the one-half-billion-year old Cambrian sea floor; and
WHEREAS, During glacial intervals of the Pleistocene epoch 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago, ice covered three times as much of the Sierra Nevada as compared to today; and
WHEREAS, California’s sea levels were more than 400 feet lower than in the present, turning many of its modern continental seafloors into dry, grassy valleys filled with great beasts, according to a 2006 paper by the senior state archaeologist, Breck Parkman; and
WHEREAS, Abundant herds of large mammals, such as camels, bison, horses, and mammoths, roamed across the “Serengeti” of Pleistocene California, potentially migrating in large numbers to the then-dry San Francisco Bay; and
WHEREAS, Mammoths, diverse relatives of elephants, ranged across Pleistocene California, from the roughly 13-foot-tall Columbian mammoths found abundantly at sites like the County of Madera’s Fairmead Landfill to the roughly 5-foot-tall Pygmy Mammoth that resided with giant mice on the then “superisland” of Santarosae, which flooded to become the modern-day Channel Islands; and
WHEREAS, Numerous Pleistocene carnivores hunted in the Pleistocene plains, including flying teratorns, giant short-faced bears, dire wolves, and California’s state fossil, the saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis; and
WHEREAS, The La Brea Tar Pits in the City of Los Angeles, designated as a geoheritage site and geo-collection by the International Commission on Geoheritage, preserves hundreds of dire wolves and Smilodon along with numerous insects, plants, fish, and other small animals, providing crucial insights into changing Pleistocene ecosystems; and
WHEREAS, In California during the Miocene 23,000,000 to 5,300,000 years ago, the Cascade and Coast Ranges were still rising while an inland sea covered California’s Central Valley and turned the emerging Sierra Nevada into a shoreline; and
WHEREAS, The gargantuan Megalodon, a shark that grew several times the size of a great white shark, and may have hunted whales, patrolled California’s Miocene seaways and shed its teeth at sites like Sharktooth Hill, while 400 pound “tusked” salmon swam away from the sharks to breed in California’s rivers, being found near areas like the City of Modesto; and
WHEREAS, The Monterey Formation, ranging from the County of Orange and the Palos Verdes Peninsula to the City of Santa Cruz and the City of Monterey itself, preserves oceanic ecosystems of California where creatures as diverse as baleen whales and “pseudo-toothed” seabirds with 14-to-16 foot wingspans lived; and
WHEREAS, The bizarre desmostlyians, Miocene marine mammals with hippo-like bodies and protruding teeth that may have suction-fed on marine vegetation, were first discovered in the County of Alameda; and
WHEREAS, A unique cast of mammals roamed Miocene California’s land ecosystems, including “bear-dogs,” three-toed horses, and four-tusked elephant relatives, found in localities such as the Barstow Formation in the County of San Bernardino, while Anza-Borrego Desert State Park records the arrival of giant ground sloths from South America during the later Pliocene; and
WHEREAS, During the Cretaceous period 145,000,000 to 66,000,000 years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, the globe was so warm that Antarctica had temperate rainforests; and
WHEREAS, In California, the Farallon Plate was subducting, creating widespread volcanic chains across the state and prompting the Sierra Nevada’s rise while oceans covered most of California; and
WHEREAS, California dinosaur fossils from that time include the fragments of a meat-eating theropod in the City of Rocklin and the state dinosaur, Augustynolophus morrisi, an approximately three-ton “duck-billed” hadrosaur that ate plants and was found in the County of Fresno; and
WHEREAS, The armored, plant-eating dinosaur Aletopelta, found in the County of San Diego’s Point Loma Formation near the City of Carlsbad, was swept out to sea with fossilized invertebrates attached to its bones, forming a “dinosaur reef,” while California’s seaways were also filled with the chambered shells of ammonites, found at sites like the County of Siskiyou’s Hornbrook Formation; and
WHEREAS, Marine reptiles hunted across California’s Cretaceous seaways in areas like the County of Fresno’s Moreno Formation, which includes diverse, long-necked elasmosaurids like Morenosaurus that resemble the Loch Ness Monster, while the County of Shasta preserved the large ichthyosaur known as Shastasaurus from the Late Triassic period; and
WHEREAS, During the deeply ancient Cambrian period around one-half billion years ago, the moon was closer to the earth, the days were less than 21 hours long, and vast seas covered much of the Earth’s surface while the land remained barren of life; and
WHEREAS, California did not yet exist in its modern form during the Cambrian, but the rocks now exposed in some of its eastern mountain ranges were once submerged beneath the Cambrian oceans; and
WHEREAS, Shelled trilobites crawled on this ancient Cambrian seafloor, being perhaps the earliest creatures to see the world through compound eyes, with their fossils being particularly abundant in areas such as the County of San Bernardino’s Marble Mountains, where they lived alongside the segmented predator Anomalocaris that hunted with a two-pronged mouth; and
WHEREAS, California rocks preserve the oldest fossil reef in North America in the White-Inyo Mountains, composed of sponge-like archaeocyathids and structures built by microbial blue-green algae; and
WHEREAS, These sites primarily selected from the Pleistocene, Miocene, Cretaceous, and Cambrian eras of California are far from an exhaustive list of California’s ancient ecosystems; and
WHEREAS, California is also rich in fauna from many other times periods and localities, including the marine mammals of the Pliocene Central Coast and the rugose corals of the Devonian Death Valley region; and
WHEREAS, According to the University of California Museum of Paleontology internet website, paleontology includes the study of fossils and what they tell us about the past, ecology, and evolution, incorporating knowledge from biology, geology, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, and computer science; and
WHEREAS, The science of paleontology plays a critical role in predicting future climate change, understanding the extent to which humans have impacted biodiversity, contextualizing modern environmental challenges, engaging students and the public as a gateway to science, serving as an incubator for an interdisciplinary Science, Techology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce, and creating a critical record of life’s past and California’s natural history; and
WHEREAS, California hosts a rich network of paleontological institutions, including the Fossil Discovery Center in the County of Madera, the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, the University of California Museum of Paleontology, the San Diego Natural History Museum, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the California Academy of Sciences, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, the Western Science Center in the City of Hemet, the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, the Sierra College Natural History Museum in the City of Rocklin, and the Buena Vista Museum of Natural History and Science, in addition to numerous other institutions,
				including many university research programs; and
WHEREAS, The Department of Parks and Recreation, Transportation, and Conservation are among the state entities that have roles in preserving California’s paleontological resources and heritage; and
WHEREAS, Awe and Humility, a 2018 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, written by researchers at the Universities of California, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Irvine, and San Francisco, and the University of Toronto, demonstrates that feelings of awe can lead to greater humility; and
WHEREAS, Sciences like paleontology face serious challenges, including the closure of university programs and an unprecedented billions in science funding cuts from the federal government; now, therefore, be it
 Resolved by the Senate of the State of California,  That the Senate of the State of California celebrates the unique paleontological heritage of California, including its diverse fossil sites, institutions, and ancient ecosystems that these institutions have uncovered; and be it further
 Resolved,  That the Senate of the State of California recognizes the importance of paleontology as a critical record of life’s past, a source of valuable scientific knowledge on ecology, evolution, and our modern environmental challenges, a gateway to science for the public, and a source of awe; and be it further
 Resolved,  That the Senate of the State of California supports and promotes sciences like paleontology; and be it further
 Resolved,  That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.