Victor Valley Gem and Mineral Club

06/17/2026

Mineral Fun! 🧐 What do you see in this blue opal with dendrites? 📸: Mike Woodward

06/15/2026

Hoot...

Crazy Owl Agate - Mexico

06/14/2026

Agathla Peak in Arizona, seen in 1946 and today.

Also known as El Capitan, Agathla Peak rises from the desert south of Monument Valley on Navajo Nation land.

The 1946 image comes from John Ford’s Western film My Darling Clementine, where the peak appears in the background.

Agathla Peak is the eroded core of an ancient volcanic structure formed around 25 million years ago.

06/14/2026

T. rex has been the subject of jokes about its comically short arms for over a century, but a study published in May 2026 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B finally settled the debate. Analyzing 85 species of meat-eating dinosaurs, researchers at University College London found that tiny arms were an evolutionary trade-off caused by the skull becoming increasingly large and powerful.

As T. rex’s head evolved into its primary killing weapon —massive enough to crush bone and take down prey as large as Triceratops — the body redirected developmental resources away from the arms entirely. The skull grew. The arms shrank. Scientists also noted a secondary benefit: when multiple T. rex fed on the same carcass simultaneously, shorter arms were far less likely to be accidentally bitten off by another’s bone-crushing jaws. The arms did not shrink because they were useless. They shrank because something more powerful took their place, and keeping them out of the way of other T. rex was simply a bonus.

Augustios Paleo CC BY SA 4.0