Fossil-cleaning exhibit brings out prehistoric wonders at Ventura County Fair
When rain pelted Ventura County earlier this year, 15-year-old Kaylee Tan went in search of fossils in the creek behind her Simi Valley home.
She was hopeful. She had found turritella fossils, a type of shellfish, in the sandstone before. In the exposed creek bed, she spotted her most intact and defined specimen yet.
The turritella fossil — dating back to the late Pleistocene Epoch about 1.5 million to 750,000 years ago — won her a first place ribbon at the Ventura County Fair.
Tucked away in the Gems & Minerals building near the fair’s main entrance are dozens of fossils from about six collectors that range from about 600 million to 40,000 years old.
David Mautz, an amateur paleontologist with the Ventura Gem & Mineral Society, is hosting regular fossil cleaning demonstrations to show the public the detail and patience that goes into restoring the past.
“When I was little, I was fascinated with dinosaurs and I never lost that,” said Mautz, who has been collecting fossils since 1970. His collection — now in the thousands ― includes items from 47 states, 83 countries and Antarctica.
On Monday, he sat at a desk chipping away at an ammonite fossil with an array of tools. The extinct cephalopod — which resembled a squid with a shell — dates back to the end of the Cretaceous Period about 65 million years ago, Mautz said. They died out with the dinosaurs.
The ammonite fossil originates from Texas, but several of his 15 fossils on display were found in Ventura County, including sand dollars from Somis and Camarillo and a type of starfish called a brittle star off Highway 33 north of Ojai.
One of the most impressive items from his collection is the saw-like jaw of a mosasaur, also from the late Cretaceous Period. The mosasaur was a marine reptile that resembled a crocodile.
Mautz’s mosasaur jaw is about 90 million to 65 million years old and won him a first place ribbon and a plaque.
While plant and animal remains dating over 10,000 years old are considered fossils, some of Mautz’s items go back about 600 million years.
The fossils predate the Cambrian explosion, a period between about 570 million to 480 million years ago when “mother nature went wild and did a lot of experimentation,” Mautz said.
Scientists use the radioactive material in the fossils and surrounding rock to determine age, he added.
Despite decades of researching and digging, Mautz said he still gets excited when he unearths a fossil.
“It’s like winning a lottery drawing,” he said.
Mautz will be hosting fossil cleaning demonstrations in the fair’s Gems & Minerals building on Thursday, Friday and Sunday afternoons.
Ventura County Fair details
The fairgrounds, at 10 W. Harbor Blvd. in Ventura, open at 1 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and noon on Saturday and Sunday. Grounds close at 11 p.m. The fair runs through Sunday.
On Thursday: Dollar Day all day
Thursday’s attractions: Flying Royals trapeze show (throughout the day), 805 Station Stage; Hypnotist Tina Marie, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., Pepsi Seabreeze State; fossil cleaning with David Mautz, 1-5 p.m., Gems & Minerals building.
Admission: $15 for ages 13-64; $10 ages 6-12; $10 ages 65-99; free for anyone 5 and younger or 100 and older.
Parking at the fairgrounds: $20. People can also park and use free shuttle services from several different Ventura sites.
More information: venturacountyfair.org.
Brian J. Varela covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo. He can be reached at brian.varela@vcstar.com or 805-477-8014. You can also find him on Twitter @BrianVarela805.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Fossil-cleaning demo shows prehistoric wonders at Ventura County Fair
