The Department of Biology at Cal State San Bernardino has received a grant of more than $24,000 from the David B. Jones Foundation to support a paleontological dig of the Late Paleozoic Era amniote Dimetrodon, a sail-backed mammal-like reptile found in Central New Mexico, up through animals from the age of dinosaurs.Stuart Sumida, a professor of biology will be partnering with Kevin Madalena of the Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico. The project will combine its efforts with paleontological education and outreach to local native K-12 students in the Jemez Valley (NM) School District by involving the students directly in fieldwork. “This is a remarkable opportunity for our laboratory at CSUSB,” Sumida said. “My colleagues and I have been trying to work in the region of Jemez Pueblo for decades, and now by partnering with local native geologists and involving local native middle and high school students, we have our chance.”The David B. Jones Foundation, which was established in 1998 and named for David B. Jones, (1928-2013), an American amateur paleontologist specializing in Mid-Tertiary mammals and late Cretaceous marine fossils, supports research in paleontology, to encourage writing and publication of articles relating to paleontology, and to support educational programs and training for young and amateur fossil hunters.The foundation gives grants to domestic nonprofit organizations to further educational, research, and charitable activities in the science of paleontology who primarily promote those activities within the United States.Jones owned and operated a farm management business in Minnesota for 32 years.  When Jones was 37 years old, he decided to go back to college.  It was at Macalester College, after taking a course in geology, that Jones developed his passion for paleontology.  He expanded his knowledge and passion with extensive reading, seminars, and hands on experience. Jones conducted field research in Utah, Wyoming, and South Dakota and discovered various dinosaur fossils in Utah and mammal fossils in Wyoming.  Since 1976 he has shared his knowledge of paleontology with the Boy Scouts at the Lewis & Clark Scout Camp.  Sumida, who joined Cal State San Bernardino in 1992, is the director of the university’s Research Activities in the Vertebrae Paleontology and Comparative Vertebrae Anatomy Laboratory.Sumida also serves as a co-director of the Early Permian Bromacker Project David S Berman and Amy Henrici of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Thomas Martens of the Museum der Nature, Gotha, Germany. In collaboration with other colleagues from American, German and Canadian institutions, they are documenting the newly discovered taxa and paleoecology as demonstrated by the locality. The locality has produced the best preserved, and most important collection of Early Permian tetrapod skeletons anywhere in the world.Visit the David B. Jones Foundation website for more information about its programs.Also visit the CSUSB Department of Biology website.For more information on Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit inside.csusb.edu.