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University of California Publications in Geology [Vol. 12 



The most recent and one of the most interesting contributions 

 to Pacific Coast palaeontology is that of Childs Frick, who, with 

 unexcelled patience and persistence, has secured from the apparently 

 barren hills of San Timoteo near San Bernardino, California, a series 

 of Pliocene to Pleistocene mammal assemblages. These faunas include, 

 with Asiatic types like the great bear, Hyaenarctos, one of the most 

 interesting series of specimens suggesting the origin of the modern 

 horse, Equns, that has yet appeared in America. 



Studies of the fossil marine mammals known in West Coast 

 deposits were planned beginning in 1895, but have only recently 

 been realized in part through a review of all known pinniped remains 

 from these deposits by Remington Kellogg. 



Other studies of vertebrate faunas now under way, and to which 

 reference might be made, include the discussion of a considerable 

 number of special groups as the antelope-like ungulates, and the cats. 

 Among the marine forms the cetaceans are being investigated. As yet 

 comparatively little is known of this last group although excellent 

 collections are already assembled for study. 



Vertebrate palaeontology in the West Coast region has not yet 

 reached the stage of development of invertebrate palaeontology in 

 completeness of material available. In other particulars, as in the 

 study of biological groups and evolutionary series, it is in many 

 respects in advance of invertebrate study, excepting that aspect of 

 it so remarkably exhibited in James Perrin Smith's work on the 

 Cephalopoda. 



HISTOEY OF PALAEOBOTANICAL INVESTIGATIONS 



Our knowledge of the historj^ of plants in tlie Pacific Coast region 

 is much more imperfect than that of invertebrates or of vertebrates. 

 During the pioneer period, the attention given to plants was not com- 

 parable to that bestowed upon either group of animals. During the 

 second period the absence of local palaeobotanists has greatly retarded 

 progress in this particular field. Up to the present time, a large part, 

 of the work done on the Pacific Coast has been carried on with the 

 assistance or through the cooperation of the United States Geological 

 Survey. 



The earliest publication on palaeobotany of the West Coast 

 known to the writer is one published by Leo Lesquereux in 1859 in 

 the American Journal of Science and covering descriptions of ' ' Some 



