1916] Buwalda: Miocene Mammalian Faunas from Tehaehapi Pass 77 



sediments and the similarity of the finer beds to playa lake deposits 

 strongly suggest that the climate was arid or semi-arid, rather than 

 humid. The presence of palm leaves near the lower of the horizons 

 at which mammalian remains were found does not conflict with this 

 inference. 



Since their deposition the series of deposits containing the faunas 

 have been folded, with dips up to 30 degrees. The tilted strata have 

 been in part cut away by erosion, and their deep dissection lias afforded 

 excellent opportunity for securing collections of the contained fossil 

 remains. The fossils were obtained from badland surfaces, on which 

 they lie where the matrix has been blown or washed away, and from 

 rocky shelves on the bluffs in which the fossils were embedded. 



The two localities from which the faunas were collected are situ- 

 ated about three miles apart. The lower fauna was found in sand- 

 stones, containing chert layers, about nine miles northeast of the town 

 of Tehaehapi, and one mile northeast of Phillips Ranch, which is on 

 Sand Creek, a tributary of Cache Creek. This assemblage may be 

 known as the Phillips Ranch fauna. The second or younger fauna 

 occurs in coarse sandstones and fine fanglomerates exposed along the 

 south fork of upper Cache Creek, about three and one-half miles east 

 of Phillips Ranch. This upper mammal-bearing horizon passes under 

 Cache Peak on the divide between Cache Creek and Jawbone Canon. 

 This will be known as the Cache Peak fauna. Strata of an estimated 

 thickness of five hundred feet separate the horizons of the Phillips 

 Ranch and Cache Peak faunas. It is quite possible that an uncon- 

 formity occurs in the section between the two faunas ; evidence sug- 

 gesting an erosion interval was noted in upper Oil Canyon, a tributary 

 of Cache Creek from the south. 



The Phillips Ranch fauna was obtained at a single locality ex- 

 tending only a few hundred feet along the outcrop of the beds and 

 through but fifty or seventy-five feet of the strata. The Cache Peak 

 material was collected from exposures distributed over an area perhaps 

 two miles long and extending through several hundred feet of beds. 



The collection from the lower horizon near Phillips Ranch includes 

 the following forms : 



PHILLIPS RANCH FAUNA 



Merychippns, n. s[ 

 Camelkl, large 

 Camelid, small 

 Moropus, sp. 



Merycodus? sp. 

 Carnivore, indet. 

 Canid, in<let. 

 Felid, indet. 



