Paleo-tastic: A festival of fossils will raise a roar in Claremont

The world is blooming, or beginning to, around Southern California with all sorts of wildflowers, and cultivated blossoms, starting to make a spectacular showing

It can prompt a person to think of what's going on underground, and all of the seeds and shoots that gift us with the spring flowers we love so.

Something else that's famously in the ground? Fossils.

And while the ancient artifacts left by the critters that once roamed our planet don't grow petals or leaves, fossils have a marvelous way of providing humans with the same sort of curiosity and wonder, the wonder that life on Earth so marvelously delivers.

If you can take a break from the blossoms, and seeking out the splendid spreads of gorgeous spring sights, you'll want to stomp on over to Claremont, in the way that an ol' T. rex might have, for an enlightening event devoted to all things fossil.

It is, in fact, Fossil Fest, an annual prehistoric party at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology.

Several paleontologists will be there, representing a line-up of lauded local institutions, including the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum and the Southern California Paleontological Society.

The museum's collections will be opened for "special behind-the-scenes tours!" is one tantalizing promise, while the newest news from the fossil-finding fronts will be discussed.

A special Fossil Fest admission of $7 should further draw dinosaur devotees; kids under age 4, and teachers can enjoy the fossil-fabulous festivity for free.

We're obsessed with dinosaurs, and the flora and fauna of eons past, but the long-gone animals of yore didn't leave diary entries behind or short videos of their time on this planet.

Instead, fossils tell the stories, fleshing out a portrait of an ancient Earth. Get to know the realm of these ground-hidden narrative devices, and the scientists who help translate all that fossil findings mean, on March 9.