2026 April 23 Meeting- Orange County Flora in the Fossil Record

Date: April 23, 2026. Doors at 6:30pm, presentation starts at 7:00pm.

Location: Duck Club at the San Joaquin River Marsh, Irvine

Description: Orange County has a fossil record of plants going back to the Cretaceous period (beginning ~145 million years ago and ending ~66 million years ago), when the area was under shallow coastal waters and dinosaurs populated the land. From ancient monkey-puzzle trees to the first oaks and sycamores, we will cover the plant fossils found in the different geological formations of Orange County and how changing local flora reflects both local environments and global changes in plant distributions. Further, we will discuss the challenges of identifying plants from fragmentary remains, especially leaves.    

Presenter Bio: Will Gelnaw is the Paleontology Curator for Orange County Parks, where he manages a collection of hundreds of thousands of fossils from all over Orange County. Will grew up in Fullerton, but left to pursue his academic career before ultimately returning to Orange County. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alberta, a Master of Science from East Tennessee State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Since moving back, he has been slowly transforming his front yard into a native garden. His backyard also has some native plants, but mostly everything is eaten or trampled by his pet tortoise.