His work on Santa Rosa Island extended back many years before 1959.

He had been investigating the island’s Pleistocene fauna, its archaeological sites from various periods, and the geological history recorded in its sediments and terraces.

When he saw the bones in the canyon wall, he had the geological context to immediately understand what he was looking at: the stratum, its depth, its depositional character, its relationship to the island’s climatic and geological history.

He also had the scientific judgment to understand the limitations of the available dating methods and to make the decision — crucial in retrospect — to preserve the bones for future analysis rather than consuming them in procedures inadequate to the task.