RECENT FINDINGS
AND THEORY ON "CIT 592":
(CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SPECIMEN 592)
By F Joseph Bell
The Irvine Ranch Dinosaur, "CIT 592", is a very "New" Dinosaur.
It may have been one of the last Hadrosaur Species to have ever existed!  
It may have even existed above the K-T  Extinction Boundary into the Paleocene.
Stratigraphic evidence from the Irvine Ranch Dinosaur site supports a Maastrictian
time frame; (70.6 - 65.5 mya) or newer age for the rock strata from which the Irvine Ranch
dinosaur fossils originate.
This strata, originally named the "Martinez" Formation by W. M. Gabb is extremely close
to the K/T extinction event of 65.5 mya which ended the age of dinosaurs.  
This age rock formation is supportive of Hadrosaurs like Edmontosaurus Annectens,
Parasaurolophus or more recent forms.
Lambeosaurus and Saurolophus sp. are Hadrosaurs with similar maxilla
but in the American West Cretaceous, they are Hadrosaurs more characteristically coming
out of older, Campanian (83.5 - 70.6 mya), rock formations and typically died out before the
Maastrictian.  This suggests that the Irvine Ranch Dinosaur is younger.
The Campanian, exposed in the Santa Ana foothills nearby is
characterized by Marine Invertebrates, indicative of a shallow warm ocean.
This was hardly a plant eating, forest dinosaur environment here in Southern California.
By Maastrictian time, 7 million years later (after 65.5 mya, above the K/T Extinction Event),
this area began changing from shallow sea and developed into forested marshland
as mountains rose to the West, possibly forming a chain of high volcanoes.
Recently, 3 huge craters have been found off the San Clemente shoreline.
2 craters are in excess of 18 miles in diameter.
A 50 mile by 40 mile wide volcanic ash fertilized valley of fresh water lakes, rivers,
forests and swamps Bell calls "Dinosaur Valley" formed at the time period represented
near the base of the Silverado Formation.
(The new name for the "Martinez" Formation of W. M. Gabb).
Located between Corona and Oceanside, this lush, green valley
produced the Irvine Ranch Dinosaur long after the Campanian ended.
CalTech 592 was contained in a bedded lens of pebbly, alluvial sandstone
from this time period.  There is evidence of additional dinosaur fossils nearby.     
It is theorized by Bell that a Maastrictian or newer variety of Saurolophus survived
the massive extinction event of 65.5 mya
(possibly a huge asteroid impact near Chicxulub, Mexico)
and migrated East from Western Russia over a Beringian Land Mass,
South into ancient Southern California.
Though much strata immediately below the K/T boundary
is missing due to an unconformity, isolated remnants survived.
A recent geology study by Occidental College supports the presence of very old
(58 MYA), Paleocene strata near the lignite coal beds behind Irvine Lake
in Orange County, California.

Bernard N. Moore described the very latest cretaceous of the Santa Ana hills
prior to the tertiary Silverado formation as an eroding land mass of raised,
exposed cretaceous strata planing off into a nearby shallow ocean.
In the field we see in several localities a marked change from fine, calm marine "bay"
sediment to rougher, rapidly deposited, larger grained, quartzose sandstone deposits.  
The rock pictured below comes from this "sandy" horizon of the late cretaceous just prior
to the deposition of the 58 mya Silverado formation.  
It is from the Santiago Truck Trail in the in strata slightly above the KT event.  
Several large examples exposed nearby show a distinctive lack of invertebrate fossils when
compared to other upper cretaceous rocks in the vicinity.  This particular uppermost cretaceous rock
horizon could indicate the change to a freshwater, land environment.  
A dinosaur environment.
Four others soon followed;










1st:  1927, Found In Orange County: CIT 592 Hadrosaur
2nd: 1939, Found In Panoche Hills: UCMP Hadrosaur
3rd:  1941, Found In Fresno: CIT 2760 Hadrosaur
4th:  1941, Found In Fresno: CIT 2852 Hadrosaur
5th:  1967, Found In La Jolla: SDNHM Hadrosaur
"DUCK - BILLED" DINOSAUR
HADROSAUR FOSSIL PHOTOS: 1927
IRVINE RANCH DINOSAUR
CONTACT ORANGE COUNTY DINOSAUR
THE DINOSAUR FOUND IN IRVINE IN 1927 WAS A HADROSAUR OFTEN REFERRED TO AS A DUCK BILLED DINOSAUR
TEETH  >
DUCK BILLED DINOSAUR  
SKULL         >
< 1939 Fresno Skull Model
1970, Same Skull, Remodeled
< For Accuracy by Dr. Morris
Baby Hadrosaur:
(hatchling)
CONTACT ORANGE COUNTY DINOSAUR
From: A Review of Pacific Coast Hadrosaurs, William J. Morris,
Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 47, No. 3 (May, 1973), pp. 551-561
< RIGHT MAXILLA
FOSSIL UPPER RIGHT OUTSIDE JAWBONE: Called A "Maxilla"
< Rear of Maxilla                            Front of Maxilla > (toward duckbill) >                 
                     
FOSSIL UPPER RIGHT INSIDE DINOSAUR JAWBONE:
reversed lengthwise from above
< Front of Maxilla < (toward duckbill)                                             Rear >        
>
DISTINCTIVE GRINDER TEETH EMERGE FROM INSIDE,
UPPER RIGHT JAW, EDMONTOSAURUS ANNECTENS.
<                                                    >        
TEETH EMERGE FROM THE OUTSIDE OF UPPER RIGHT JAW BONE CALLED A (MAXILLA).

Note the ridges on this side of the teeth emerging from outside, upper right jawbone (maxilla).
The ridges of the bottom teeth would have contacted the animal's tongue allowing a kind of
washboard rubbing action inside the mouth.  This may have aided digestion or gastrolith formation.
(Gastroliths are rounded stones polished by dinosaurs, often found near their bones).
<   CalTech 592
<  CalTech 592
THANKS FOR VISITING!

LET US KNOW  WHAT INTERESTED YOU ABOUT THE ORANGE COUNTY DINOSAUR!
HELP US ESTABLISH THE FIND!

This website is dedicated to open expression of ideas and scientific accuracy.  
It is modified and updated weekly as more reliable information becomes available.
We invite and will consider incorporating any professional inputs that have
a constructive impact to the search for dinosaurs in Orange County.  

To Contact  F Joseph Bell:   dr.bell@hotmail.com
Copyright © 2007 F Joseph Bell
    The Duckbilled Dinosaur Skull Above Is Very Similar To The Irvine Ranch Dinosaur
    Found In 1927.  It Indicates Where The Right, Upper Jawbone With Teeth
    Called The Maxilla, Is Located On A Hadrosaurian Dinosaur.  
    CIT 592 Was A Small Piece Of The Right Maxilla Outlined Above.  
    70 Million Years Ago, CIT 592 Was In Use, Busily Chewing Food
    In This Position In Our Local Dinosaur's Mouth.
    The Irvine Ranch Dinosaur's Teeth Emerged In Rows, (39 to 45 Vertical Rows)
    From Two Upper And Two Lower Jawbones.  
    Each Row Had 3 To 5 Teeth Wearing Down In The Contact Surface At Any Time.  
    The Irvine Ranch Hadrosaur's Four Dental Batteries Contained
    Almost Eight Hundred Teeth!
LOCATION OF RIGHT MAXILLA AND TEETH IN HADROSAUR SKULL AS EVIDENCED BY CalTech 592 FOSSIL
CIT 592:
Maxilla >
Teeth  >
Cite: Godefroit, P., Bolotsky, Y.L., and Van Itterbeeck, J. 2004.
The lambeosaurine dinosaur Amurosaurus riabinini, from the Maastrichtian of Far Eastern
Russia.
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 49 (4): 585–618.
Large enigmatic crater structures offshore southern California
Mark R. Legg111Legg Geophysical, Huntington Beach, CA 92647, USA,
Craig Nicholson22Institute for Crustal Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
93106, USA, Chris Goldfinger33College of Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Oregon State
University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA, Randall Milstein33College of Ocean and Atmospheric
Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA and Marc J. Kamerling2,*2
Institute for Crustal Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
COMPELLING NEW EVIDENCE FOR PALEOCENE DINOSAURS IN THE OJO ALAMO
SANDSTONE, SAN JUAN BASIN, NEW MEXICO AND COLORADO, USA. J.E. Fassett1, S.G.
Lucas2, R.A. Zielinski1, and J.R. Budahn1. 1U.S. Geological Survey, P.O. Box 25046, MS 939,
DFC, Denver, Colorado 80225
Continental Slope Deposits from a Late Cretaceous, Tectonically Active Margin,
Southern California
Steven P. Buck (2), David J. Bottje
Journal of Sedimentary Research
Volume 55 (1985)

Occidental College; "Paleocene Silverado Formation,"  Orange County, California,
Ruben A. Lopez, Faculty Advisor: D. Prothero.
CIT 592 (The Irvine Ranch Fossil)
WAS FROM A HUGE PLANT EATING DINOSAUR

BELOW: THE 1927 IRVINE RANCH DINOSAUR IN SIZE COMPARISON TO A HUMAN.

THE WELL PRESERVED FOSSIL JAWBONE PICTURED LOWER INDICATES
THE IRVINE RANCH HADROSAUR WAS AS BIG AS A T REX!

Based On The Size And Spacing Of The Teeth, The Irvine Ranch Dinosaur Skull Was
Slightly Over Three Feet Long.  Hadrosaurs With Three Foot Skulls Were 30-35 Feet
In Length. The Irvine Ranch Dinosaur Could Easily Weigh Over 2+ Tons.
Hadrosaur rear leg bones were as strong as steel beams enabling the animal
to push over trees like our modern day elephant.  The huge tail balanced
the weight of the animal on it's huge rear legs and feet.  
Large, fast and strongly built, an animal of this size could protect it's young
and evade a theropod predator like T-Rex.
The dinosaur skull fossils found in Fresno County California
were modelled in 1940 by CalTech paleontologists,
(older, darker, upper picture),
With additional hadrosaur data, this original skull model was found
to be anatomically incorrect.
The skull  was re-modelled by Professor William Morris in 1970, (lower picture).  
The model hangs on the wall in the Los Angeles County
Museum of Natural History. (LACMNH)

Since 1967, the author is aware of at least SEVEN, possibly more
dinosaur bone fossil discoveries from Santa Barbara to San Diego.
As more is learned about the recent dinosaur bone fossil
discoveries we will add them to the above list.
DUCKBILL MAXILLA:

Dinosaur Skulls, like human skulls, are built up of dozens of interlocking bones.  
The photo below is the upper, right jawbone of the 70 million year old hadrosaurian dinosaur
"Edmontosaurus Annectens".
The upper jawbones of dinosaurs are called "maxillas".  Teeth emerge from both lower and
upper jawbones.  Lower jawbones are called "dentaries".  
Hadrosaur teeth were unique and highly specialized.  This indicates that the animal was
dependant on a consistently structured food supply for a very long
(thousands of years) period of time.  

The portion outlined inside the black box is very nearly identical to
CalTech 592, the dinosaur jawbone Bernard Moore found 80 years ago
in the foothills of Irvine Ranch in 1927.
CALIFORNIA'S FIRST DINOSAUR:
Found April 26, 1927 on Irvine Ranch, Orange County, Ca.
    MYSTERIOUSLY:
    The Jawbone Fossil Found In Orange County Was Ignored.
    1927 Paleontologists Were Unfamiliar With Local Dinosaur Fossils
        And Did Not Identify The Dinosaur Jawbone And Teeth.
      The Fossil Waited On A Shelf, For Forty Years!  
    1898-1967 GEOLOGY CONTENDED THAT NO DINOSAURS COULD HAVE EXISTED HERE
    BECAUSE THIS AREA FOR HUNDREDS OF MILES WAS SUBMERGED.  DINOSAUR FOSSIL
    DISCOVERIES  ARE BEGINNING TO CHANGE THE FIRMLY HELD SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF
    CALIFORNIA.  
    In 1967 Brad Riney,
    a teenage fossil collector in San Diego, was out on the La Jolla sea cliffs
    collecting fossil sea shells after school.  And he found old bones!
    Parts of a distinctive dinosaur vertebra.  
    The fossils were also from a plant eating hadrosaurian dinosaur.
    That find made 5 Dinosaur "Discoveries" coming out of California.  
UNKNOWN TO SCIENCE:
    No dinosaur of any kind had ever been found on the West Coast prior to 1927.  
    From Alaska to Mexico, the closest reported dinosaur was found in much older
    (83 million year old) strata in Central Utah in 1923.  
    These unexpected dinosaur discoveries surprised science.
    By 1967, a pattern of California dinosaur finds was emerging!
   Dinosaurs were becoming a notable occurrence in California.

    This interested William Morris,
    Professor of Geology at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
    The 1967 dinosaur discovery near San Diego supported
    his own dinosaur digs further South in Baja, Ca. (MEXICO),
     where he was finding huge, ancient hadrosaur bones
    a hundred miles south of Ensenada, near El Rosario.
    He likened the "Baja" dinosaurs to "Lambeosaurus"
    and found one in excess of 55 feet!
    (much larger than a T-REX)  
    He was the first to notice the similarity of West Coast dinosaurs
    to the ones being found in strata a thousand miles north
    in Canada and postulated a spread Westward
    of Canadian Dinosaurs into California.
    Dr. Morris attempted to find the lost Santa Ana dinosaur on one occasion in
    1973, visiting the hills to hunt for fossils with several others, finding nothing
    but a cretaceous shark's tooth and invertebrates. (fossil sea shells)  
    Without it's location, it is amazing how far he took the project.  
    In 1988 Dr. Morris encouraged F Joseph Bell,
    an interested Orange County fossil hunter,
    to keep trying to find the location
    of the lost 1927 hadrosaur.
    Since Then, Several More Dinosaur Fossils
    Have Been Discovered In California!
    1987-2007
    Were Years of Discovery for Dinosaurs in California!  
    Additional, Recently Discovered Dinosaur Bone Fossils
    From Southern California are Currently Being Researched,
    Including Fossils From Orange County.  
    Below is a reconstruction from ancient fossils of what the skull of the dinosaur
    found near Fresno County California in 1939 looked like.
WHERE CALTECH 592 WAS LOCATED IN THE HADROSAUR:
The Hadrosaur Skull Below Shows The Location Of The Maxilla On The Dinosaur Skull.
It Reveals An Approximate Size Comparison Of The Hadrosaur (MAXILLA) Jaw Fossil Found
On Irvine Ranch In 1927 To The Overall Size Of The Animal.

CIT 592 Contains 5 Adult Tooth Rows And Suggests The Maxilla Was 17".
This Would Make The Hadrosaur Skull Size Average, Approximately 36".
A Hadrosaur with a 36" Skull Indicates An Adult Dinosaur.  This Suggests That
The Irvine Ranch Dinosaur Was A 35 Foot Long Hadrosaur.  The Deep Wear On The Teeth
Also Suggest The Orange County Dinosaur Was A Mature, Fully Grown Adult Dinosaur.  
This Size Hadrosaur Was Prevalent Later In The Maastrictian, Earlier Forms Like The Lambeosaurus
Found By W. Morris In Baja Were Much Bigger.  This Correlates Well With The Newer Aged Rock
Deposit The Irvine Ranch Dinosaur Originated From.
CALTECH 592/LACM 5219

THE FOSSIL PICTURED BELOW IS CIT 592
(CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY) SPECIMEN #592
CIT 592 IS A FOSSIL DINOSAUR JAW BONE WITH TEETH.  
IT WAS FOUND IN THE BADLANDS OF IRVINE RANCH BY BERNARD N. MOORE,
A 21 YEAR OLD CALTECH GEOLOGY STUDENT, ON APRIL 26, 1927.  
BERNARD DID NOT REALIZE WHAT HE HAD FOUND.  
THE FOSSIL WAS IGNORED.

FORTY YEARS LATER, THE BROWN, TOOTHED FOSSIL WAS NOTICED
AND IDENTIFIED AS "HADROSAURIDAE", A DUCK BILLED DINOSAUR,
BY WILLIAM J. MORRIS
BUT IT'S LOCATION WAS A MYSTERY,
CALIFORNIA'S FIRST DINOSAUR WAS LOST!
LOST DINOSAUR QUEST:
Encouraged By The LA Museum, Everett Olson and William Morris,  
F JOSEPH BELL BEGAN SEARCHING THE ORANGE COUNTY FOOTHILLS LOOKING FOR
THE LOST DINOSAUR SITE.

THE FOSSIL IS PART OF THE CALTECH PALEONTOLOGY COLLECTION
THAT WAS ACQUIRED BY LACMNH in 1957.
(Los Angeles County Museum Of Natural History)
It is now catalogued dual: LACM 5219/CIT 592

For over 20 years, the LACMNH has graciously offered
their help and kind assistance to F Joseph Bell whenever requested,
including these research photos of the fossil which were used to find CIT 592.
CIT 592: A SMALL PIECE OF A HUGE DINOSAUR!
See the anatomical location of CIT 592 outlined in the Maxilla Below:
THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY,
A WORLD CLASS MUSEUM
With Leading Experts In Multidisciplinary Fields
Is Located Less Than One Hour's Drive In Nearby Los Angeles.
Famous For It's Size And The Quality Of It's Personnel,
The LACMNH Houses Over
40 MILLION FOSSILS AND SPECIMENS!
14 Ft. TALL X 35 Ft. LONG
Note Bernard Moore's Original, Faded, 1927 "Recipe Card"
Attached To The Fossil Dinosaur Jawbone Fragment.
CIT 592
Comparing our local, cretaceous fossils with those of Europe, William M. Gabb with the help
of Fielding B. Meek, Smithsonian Institution paleontologist, fixed the coal bearing base layer
of the "Martinez" now called the "Silverado" formation at "Upper Tria" (mistaken nomenclature),
or correlatively to the Maastrictian of Europe, approximately 70 mya,
+- 2 mya.  Contemporary geologists moderned up the Silverado formation with little evidence.  
We believe this was a mistake.  Using the geology pioneer's estimates it tentatively puts
"Dinosaur Valley",
our Irvine Ranch Dinosaur's marshland ecosystem at or above 68 mya,
firmly within the Maastrictian and possibly more recent on the Geological Timescale.
Another recent study by the USGS; Tectonic Evolution of Northwestern México and the
Southwestern USA By Scott E. Johnson, Scott R. Paterson, John M. Fletcher, Gary H. Girty, David L.
Kimbrough, Arturo Martin-Barajas indicates that the "SILVERADO FORMATION" is as old as 62 +-2
mya.  This gets it real close to the time we feel hadrosaurian dinosaurs and most likely other forms
such as the ankylosaur and tyrannosaurus form of dinosaur were present.





58-65.5 Million shows a closing gap in identified strata
that was earlier considered missing due to the unconformity.
On the basis of this emerging new data, we have further identified the
"Irvine Ranch Dinosaur", the fossil jawbone found in 1927 by Bernard Moore,
"CalTech 592" as the partial, right anterior maxilla of a Maastrictian possibly upper
Maastrictian Hadrosaur.

In appearance and condition, CalTech 592 looks much like the outlined
portion of the well preserved fossil jawbone from a similar
Hadrosaur, Edmontosaurus Annectens, pictured above.
Newer cretaceous rock example above in comparison with
slightly older cretaceous example below show the
environmental change at the time of the
K-T extinction in Orange County.
Example above: coarser sand grains, sharply cross bedded sandstone matrix from approximately
65+-5 mya, indicative of an active environment with fast moving wind or water.
This is very different from the older rock example pictured below which consists of 70+-5mya, finely
sorted, shallow, slow moving marine or estuary sediment deposits.

The older cretaceous rock is conspicuously minus fast moving wind or water which creates cross
bedded lines.  It hosts marine invertebrate fossils gently aligned by gravity or current, preserved in
fine grained mudstone, indicative of a calmer environment.  
Both were found near Modjeska Canyon, 2007.
A ROCKY MYSTERY:
The two photos below were taken in late 2007 along Santiago Canyon Road where a lens
of Poway Conglomerate is exposed in a ledge.  There are golf ball to football sized
brown to brick red to purple rocks consisting of porphyritic rhyolite exotic to
the Santa Ana Mountains.  Distinctively strong wear from bruising to striations are evident.  
These rocks travelled a great distance in a long lasting, violent event
leaving them battered, bruised and finally polished by fine sediment.
This particular rock, about the size of a football caught the author's attention because of the
interesting raised patterns attached to it.  These are well cemented on to the rock's surface
and do not rub off.  These rocks form a consolidated conglomerate ledge about 25 feet thick
cemented together with limonite.  If these rocks did not come from the nearby Santa Ana
Mountains, then where?
It took a fairly catastrophic event 50 million years ago to round off and move
these heavy, dense, volcanically derived rocks at high speed over a long distance
into a localized deposit here at the base of the Santa Ana Mountain.  
The deposit that CalTech 592 was found in contains the same rock facies.  
Caltech 592 may have travelled with this mass of rocks along
a fast moving flood, landslide, or river event.


What made the raised snowflake patterns?
DUCKBILLED DINOSAUR SKULLS WERE ARRANGED MUCH LIKE
A HORSE'S SKULL ONLY SIX TIMES BIGGER.  AT OVER 35 FEET IN LENGTH,
HADROSAURS WERE BIGGER THAN TYRANNOSAURUS REX!
ABOVE AND BELOW THE KT:
The Extinction Event Of 65.5 mya Is Easily Observed
In Our Orange County Rock Exposures.  This photo is of land formed
sandstone from immediately above the KT Extinction Event.  At this time,
Orange County was not underwater, but was forested.  
Some theorists believe a huge meteor impacted near Chixulub, Mexico.
Others believe the earth reversed poles, possibly violently disrupting stable
patterns of erosion and deposition.  
Whatever the cause of the event, the change in the grains of sediment
and in the color of the rocks is obvious.  It is during this brief window
of time Orange County hosted dinosaurs.
CIT:  CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY "CalTech"
LACMNH:  "LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY"
SDNHM: "SAN DIEGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM"
UCMP: "UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA MUSEUM OF PALEONTOLOGY"
HATCHLING DINOSAURS GREW TO 3 FEET IN ONE MONTH!
VERY FINE GRAINED UPPER CRETACEOUS
MUDSTONE  SEDIMENT WITH TURONIAN
INVERTEBRATES         
>>>>