A MIOCENE LONG-BEAKED PORPOISE FROM 

 CALIFORNIA 



By remington KELLOGG 



assistant curator, division of mammals, u. s. national museum 



(With Four Plates) 



The fossil porpoise described in this paper was presented to the 

 United States National Museum by G. M. Cunningham of the Stand- 

 ard Oil Company of California, Bakersfield, Calif. This skull un- 

 questional)ly represents an undescribed species of one of the long- 

 beaked porpoises. Its closest affinities appear to be with the Pata- 

 gonian Lower Miocene genus Argyrocctus to which it is tentatively 

 referred. 



ARGYROCETUS JOAQUINENSIS new species 



Type. — LT.S.N.M. No. 11996. An incomplete skull, lacking the 

 major portion of the rostrum, the superior border and right half of 

 supraoccipital, the hinder outer border of right supraorbital process, 

 the upper portion of right exoccipital, the right zygomatic process 

 with exception of postglenoid portion, the tympanic bullae and peri- 

 otics on both sides, and all of the teeth with the exception of one 

 crown. 



Type locality. — About 12 miles northeast of Bakersfield and 1,000 

 feet west of Pyramid Hill, in sec. 14, T. 28 S., R. 29 E., Kern 

 County, Calif. ; shown on Caliente Quadrangle, United States Geo- 

 logical Survey. 



Horizon. — This skull was embedded in a fine-grained calcareous 

 sandstone nodule, which was found about 75 feet below the top of 

 the Vedder zone during May, 1930, by Max Steineke of the Stand- 

 ard Oil Company of California. The following invertebrate fossils 

 were obtained at the same locality and identified by William F. 

 Barbat : Pecten bozversi Arnold, Pecten perrini Arnold, Ostrea titan 

 Conrad, Cardium vaqucroensis Arnold, Spisula granti Wiedey, 

 Dosinia margaritana Wiedey, Phacoides saiictaecrucis Arnold, and 

 Chione indet. The sands of the Vedder zone' lie about 1,400 feet 



'Wilhelm, V. H., and Saunders, L. W., Report on the Mt. Peso oil field. 

 Summary of operations California oil fields. 12th Ann. Rep. State Oil and 

 Gas Supervisor, California State Min. Bur., San Francisco, vol. 12, no. 7, pp. 6, 

 8-9, January, 1927. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 87, No. 2 



