The natural world of California, explained.

Mountain of Knives

Lookout Mountain obsidian became prized toolstone, traded through Indigenous networks from the eastern Sierra to the Channel Islands.

Mountain of Knives

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The Man Who Saved the Owens Pupfish

The Man Who Saved the Owens Pupfish

Less than 2.5 inches in length, the Owens pupfish is a silvery-blue fish in the family Cyprinodontidae. Endemic to California’s Owens Valley, 200 miles north of Los Angeles, the fish has lived on the planet since the Pleistocene, becoming a new species when its habitat was divided by changing climatic conditions, 60,000 years ago.

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