UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 



GEOLOGY 



Vol. 10, No. 25, pp. 517-521 September 4, 1918 



EVIDENCE OF MAMMALIAN PALAEONTOLOGY 

 RELATING TO THE AGE OF LAKE 

 LAHONTAN 1 



BY 



JOHN C. MERRIAM 



Considering the importance of the deposits of Lake Lahontan in 

 Pleistocene history of North America, it is surprising that exceedingly 

 little palaeontologic evidence as to age of these beds has been ob- 

 tained up to the present time. The mammal material available to 

 Russell 2 in the course of his exhaustive study of these deposits con- 

 sisted of a very few specimens representing four forms, for only one 

 of which a specific determination has been suggested. The remains 

 known to Russell represented an elephant, a horse, a bison, and a 

 camel. A spearhead, found embedded in strata presumed to be of 

 Labontan age, was also reported. All of the forms known from the 

 Lahontan were assumed to occur in the upper portion of the lake 

 beds series and to have been buried subsequent to the "intermediate 

 stage" of Russell. 



Of greater importance than the scattered mammal bones secured 

 in the Lahontan beds by Russell is a small collection obtained in 1914 

 by Professor J. C. Jones of the University of Nevada, 3 from deposits 

 occurring at Astor Pass, four miles west of Pyramid Lake, and con- 

 sidered to represent Lahontan terraces. In the gravels of these de- 

 posits Professor Jones secured remains representing three or four 

 mammals. One species is clearly determinable as Felis atrox, the 

 largest known member of the true eat group. A second is a camel 

 near Camelops, not differing noticeably from Camelops h ester mis, well 



1 Eead before the American Geographical Society, at New York City, December 

 29, 1916. 



2 Russell, T. C, U. S. Geol. Surv. Monographs, vol. 11, p. 238, 1885. 



3 See Merriam, J. C, Univ. Calif. Publ. Bull. Dept. Geol., vol. 8, pp. 377-384, 

 1915. 



