Ridgecrest is a city in Kern County, California, United States, along U.S. Route 395 in the Indian Wells Valley in northeastern Kern County, adjacent to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake (NAWS, or China Lake). It was incorporated as a city in 1963. The population was 27,959 at the 2020 census, up slightly from 27,616 at the 2010 census.. Ridgecrest is surrounded by four …

Tapirus californicus, the California tapir, is an extinct species of tapir that inhabited North America during the Pleistocene.It became extinct about 13,000 years ago. Like other perissodactyls, tapirs originated in North America and lived on the North American continent for most of the Cenozoic Era.Fossils of ancient tapirs in North America can be dated back to 50 …