Methods We have conducted two short, preliminary field seasons at La Venta that have allowed us to put the infrastructure in place to mount a larger scale field project. In our two preliminary seasons–spanning a total of three weeks–we collected over 1500 fossils, 1178 of which were identifiable (in the field) to at least order or family. Fossils were found by surface collection. The majority of the fossils were isolated cranial/postcranial remains, although we did make several in situ finds (Fig 1a-e). We surveyed 32 separate localities, 25