iPEATURES IN HiSTORY OF LiFE ON PaCIFIC CoaST 



tionally rich, exceeding in quantity of material that 

 of all other regions of America. This fauna is 

 known from the deposits of Fossil Lake, Oregon; 

 Potter Creek Gave, Samwel Cave, and Hawver Cave 

 of California; Rancho La Brea, California; and the 

 marine Pleistocene of San Pedro. By far the most 

 abundant remains are those obtained at Rancho La 

 Brea. From this locality thousands of perfectly 

 preserved specimens have been secured. 



The Pleistocene fauna as described by Dr. Miller 

 contains a large percentage of extinct species, some 

 of which belong to genera no longer in existence. 

 A number of the forms, as the peacock-like species, 

 Pavo calif ornicus, of Rancho La Brea have relation- 

 ships with Old World types. 



Probably the most interesting of all the Pleisto- 

 cene birds recently described is the giant Teratornis, 

 a form with a skull somewhat like that of the con- 

 dor, but with a narrow beak of the eagle type. It 

 reached gigantic size and was evidently larger than 

 the great California condor. Remains of Teratornis 

 occur in portions of the deposit at Rancho La Brea 

 which seem to have formed relatively late, and it 

 is not impossible that this creature lived on into 

 the present period, and was known to early man 

 of this region. Condors and eagles of numerous 

 species were represented, among them the existing 

 California condor and a number of extinct eagles. 



The History of Mammals. — Remains of extinct 

 mammals are found in considerable abundance in 

 the Cenozoic fresh-water and land-laid formations 

 of the bad-lands regions in the Great Basin Prov- 

 ince. In the Pacific Coast Province mammals have 

 until recently been known sparinglv excepting in 

 the deposits of the latest period, tlie Pleistocene. 

 The occurrences of greatest importance in the Basin 

 Province are the John Day, Crooked River, and 

 Fossil Lake beds of eastern Oregon; the Washtunca 

 Pleistocene of eastern Washington; the Virgin Val- 

 ley, Thousand Creek, Cedar Mountain, and Astor 

 Pass localities of Nevada; and the Barstow, Ricardo, 

 and Manix localities of the Mohave Desert in south- 

 eastern California. West of the Sierra-Cascade 

 range we find a few marine mammals in the great 

 series of marine sediments, but the most important 

 occurrences are the asphalt deposits of Rancho La 

 Brea, and the Pleistocene caves of northern and mid- 

 dle California. Several mammal faunas in associa- 

 tion with the marine series near Coalinga, Cali- 

 fornia, furnish information of unusual significance 

 in working out the problem of age determination of 

 the West Coast faunas and formations. 



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