248 University of California Puhlications in Geology [Vol. 12 



by parties from the University of California in 1906 and 1909. The 

 faunas of these deposits were described by J. W. Gidley, E. L. Fur- 

 long, Miss Louise Kellogg, and J. C. Merriam, between 1907 and 1910. 

 The most significant contributions in this work were the additions 

 made to our knowledge of the earlier Pliocene, heretofore unknown 

 in the western area with the exception of a meager fauna from the 

 Rattlesnake beds of the John Day region. Indication was also given 

 of the broader relations of this fauna to those of the Great Plains 

 region of America and of Old World areas such as China, India, 

 Persia, Greece, and France. 



Between 1911 and 1915, University of California parties worked 

 over previously unexplored mammal-bearing formations of the Mohave 

 Desert area and brought to light faunas representing at least four 

 stages of the Cenozoic sequence. Of these the Phillip 's Ranch middle 

 or lower Miocene, the Barstow upper Miocene, and the Ricardo lower 

 Pliocene were represented by mammal assemblages previously un- 

 known in the region west of the Wasatch. The Manix fauna of the 

 Mohave area is tlie best known group of Pleistocene forms obtained 

 from any one locality in the Great Basin region. The Manix Pleisto- 

 cene and the Phillip's Ranch Miocene have been described by J. P. 

 Buwalda, the discoverer of these two very interesting faunas. 



An important mammal fauna of the Great Basin Miocene was 

 obtained near Cedar Mountain in 1912 by C. L. Baker and J. P. 

 Buwalda. 



In 1905 a small amount of material secured by W. W. Orcutt of 

 Los Angeles furnished the motive for beginning extensive work on 

 the Ranclio La Brea Pleistocene fauna, and for the initiation of a 

 series of publications continuing through numerous issues of bulletins 

 in the University of California Publications up to the present time. 



The great quantity of bird remains secured at Ranclio La Brea 

 was made the basis of L. H. Miller's first study of the fossil birds 

 of the Pacific Coast region, this work being later extended to include 

 all avian remains from the West Coast. Many papers have been con- 

 tributed by Dr. jMiller and the results of his studies in this field con- 

 stitute one of the unique and important contributions to American 

 palaeontology. 



Preliminary papers on the carnivores and ungulates of Rancho 

 La Brea have been published b,y J. C. Merriam. Studies on the 

 Pleistocene rodents have been contributed by Miss Louise Kellogg and 

 Lee R. Dice. An exhaustive study of the edentates of Rancho La 



