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THE UPPER PALEOCENE MAMMALIA FROM 



THE ALMY FORMATION IN 



WESTERN WYOMING 



By C. lewis GAZIN 



Curator, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology 



United States National Museum 



Smithsonian Institution 



(With 2 Plates) 



INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY OF INVESTIGATION 



Repeated, intensive search of a comparatively small exposure area 

 of the Almy formation in western Wyoming has, over the past 15 

 years, resulted in a faunal representation of about a dozen mammalian 

 species. This is, no doubt, a rather meager sample of the probable 

 fauna although based on a little over 70 determinable specimens. It is, 

 nevertheless, an interesting increase, from the original five forms 

 recognized (Gazin, 1942) on but nine specimens. The Qarkforkian 

 upper Paleocene age interpreted for the scant, earlier materials nov^ 

 seems clearly indicated by the collections as a whole. 



The locality consists of a small cluster of closely adjacent exposures 

 on the north side of La Barge Creek about 7 miles due west of the 

 town of La Barge, formerly Tulsa P. O., in Lincoln County, Wyo. 

 The most productive of these has been one in the vicinity of a topo- 

 graphic saddle, bare of vegetation, at the head of a ridge along the 

 southeast side of Buckman Hollow (see advance sheet, U.S.G.S. 

 La Barge quadrangle) in NW:iNE^ sec. 12, T.26 N., R.114 W. 

 Other localities worthy of mention are on the southeast side of the 

 above ridge, nearer the highway, and on the ridges to the northwest 

 of Buckman Hollow in the vicinity of Spring Creek. 



Discovery of these localities, as has been previously noted, was 

 made by J. B. Reeside, Jr., B. N. Moore, and W. W. Rubey of the 

 U. S. Geological Survey in 1936. Discovery by Rubey and John 

 Rodgers in 1939 of Plcsiadapis material at one of the sites provoked 

 our interest, and in 1941 an additional small collection was made by 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 131, NO. 7 



