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Show FINDING OF STONE TURTLE LINKS PRESENT VITH PAST Los Angeles, July 24. Linking the picsent with a period so far back in the dark abyss of time tnat the figures of years covering the span aro almost boyond human grasp, a fossil fos-sil of a large sea turtle, surprisingly perfect, was found a few days ago by Thomas Donlon, and shipped to this city. The discovery was accidentally accidental-ly 1nade on the slope of Mount Downey, Dow-ney, Orange county, about 3,000 feet above sea level, and many miles from the sea, today. Part of the top protruded pro-truded from the soil, and Donlon tried to pick It up to place it on the, top of a bee hive. Ho found it too heavy, and upon clearing away the dirt was startled to seo the exact markings and some of the color of a tortoise shell over what seemed to be a rock. Donlon had been prospecting in Fre mont canyon for coal, traces of which have been found at several adjacent points. He had a homestead on the mountainside, and a few bees. He has a little cabin In the canyon, and when he could not get out the supposed stono he went to the cabin for a pick and dug around. Then he found ho had a stone turtle. He carried it back to his cabin, although It wcaghs nearly 100 pounds. There, with a coarse brush, sand and water, ho scrubbed the back clean and exposed the entire batrachian which had been lying in Fremont canyon from a period per-iod estimated at 400,000 years. Hector Alllot, curator of the Southwest South-west museum, Immediately upon seeing see-ing the fossil yesterday, seized it in his hands, and eagerly, like a man fondling a gem, turned it over and over, carefully and minutely examining examin-ing the wonderful markings. He pondered over the fossil for half an hour, and then went back to his offices of-fices In the museum In the Hamburger Hambur-ger building. He declined to discuss tKn flnrl until U Vinl !.... t. - thought Later he stated that the fossil in all likelihood is the grand-daddy grand-daddy of all turtles on the Pacific coast and that It is one of tho very remarkable discoveries of the kind in recent years In southern California. He stated that It affords an authentic authen-tic link between the present and a time so remote that it staggers the imagination of man. At a time when this coast was under un-der a mile or two of sea water, and the shore line was where the summit of the Rocky mountains now Is the turtle swam leisurely over Los Ang elos, and crawled up for a sun bath near the great forest in Arizona, ol which now only the petrified trunks remain. It was at a time, says Alllot, Al-llot, when asparagus grew In the heavy green haze, that was tho fore runnor of the present atmosphere, tc such a size as to dwarf the gigantic sequoias of the California of today Mankind had not appeared on earth and tho first wriggler that would be come the first man had not as yet emerged from the primordial slime The earth was a spongy morass inhabited in-habited by animals of such tremendous tremend-ous size that the largest elephants in Africa would be pigmies in comparl son. Scientifically speaking, the fossil Is found by Curator Alllot to be a spec! men of Chelonidae sea turtle of the Miocene period, probably the Acher-ontemys Acher-ontemys of the western hemisphere At the time It was alive the archeo-Jogically archeo-Jogically famous four-toed horse was walking the spongy moraines and playing tag with the saber-toothed tiger, the mastodons and other gentle beasties that preceded man by untold penturies upon the globe. The earth was a giant morass, with palms, conifers and magnolias grow ing,to such size as to seem impossible impos-sible now. All of the Pacific coast was at the bottom of the sea, and the turtle looked down as he swam through the dark green water upon the bottom which was to rise out of the depths as the result of a terrific earth spasm that made this half ol the western hemisphere. oo |