214 University of California Publications in Geology [Vol.8 



SUMMARY 



There is developed in the eastern part of the Santa Clara River 

 Valley a series of marine sandstones and sandy shales which contain 

 a good marine fauna. This fauna is characteristic of the lower part 

 of the Fernando group. It is approximately equal in age to the lower 

 Purisima, and probably belongs near the base of the Pliocene in the 

 standard time scale. 



These marine beds are overlain by a great thickness of non-fossil- 

 iferous fluviatile conglomerates. 



Farther west, near Ventura and at Santa Barbara, a distinctly 

 younger upper Pliocene or Pleistocene marine fauna is found in beds 

 which have been classed as Fernando, and which are probably of the 

 same age as the upper part of the fluviatile conglomerates of the 

 eastern area. 



DESCRIPTION OF NEW SPECIES 

 CHIONE ELSMERENSIS, n. sp. 

 Plate 23, figures la and lb 



Shell large, outline rounded; dental formula L. 010101, second 

 cardinal tooth bifid; shell ornamented by concentric lamellae which 

 are less prominent on worn specimens; a radial sculpture of flat ribs 

 developed by erosion ; escutcheon distinct, forming a flattened area ; 

 the radial sculpture absent from the escutcheon, and for a distance 

 of about ten millimeters below the escutcheon; ligament deep-seated; 

 lunule lanceolate, bounded by impressed line. 



Compared to Chione securis, this species is longer anteriorly ; the 

 escutcheon is narrower, and the lunule is of the same relative width 

 but twice as long. It appears similar to the figure of a specimen from 

 the lower Miocene at Calabasas, listed by Arnold as C. temblor ensis, 

 and which he says is similar to, or possible identical with, a form 

 found in the upper Miocene. 



Length, 95 mm., of which two-thirds is posterior to the beak; 

 altitude, 75 mm.; diameter, 45 mm.; lunule length, 20 mm., width, 

 12 mm. 



From lower Fernando, Elsmere Canon. Univ. Calif. Loc. 1735. 



