Fieldwork

My main field sites are in my native Puerto Rico, where I have been actively doing fieldwork since the fall of 2000. My research there focuses on formations of Early and Late Oligocene age (between 33.9-23 million years ago). This time period holds clues for understanding the origins of at least part of the Greater Antillean terrestrial vertebrate fauna and flora. Fossils from this age are generally underrepresented in the Caribbean region; with other islands providing good records of older (i.e. Eocene: Jamaica) or younger (i.e. Miocene: Cuba & Hispaniola) fossil vertebrates. Puerto Rico therefore provides a unique opportunity to sample and increase our knowledge of the flora and fauna of this time not just for the island but for the rest of the Greater Antilles. To this end I also have active field sites and collaborations on the Miocene-Pliocene of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

In the past, I have also done fieldwork in the middle-late Cretaceous of California, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic; Late Miocene of Chile and Panama, and Early-Middle Miocene of Baja California Sur. 

Searching for marine tetrapods and invertebrates in the Late Cretaceous Moreno Formation of California.

Excavation of the "river" dolphin Isthminia panamensis from the Late Miocene Chagres Formation. You can read more about this discovery here!

The images here are copyright of J. Vélez-Juarbe, do not use without permission.