UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 



GEOLOGY 



Vol. 8, No. 16, pp. 305-308, 1 text-figure Issued December 22, 1914 



A PROBOSCIDEAN TOOTH FROM THE TRUCK EE 

 BEDS OF WESTERN NEVADA 



BY 



JOHN P. BUWALDA 



AVith a view to obtaining mammalian remains from the Truckee 

 beds 1 of western Nevada, the writer searched over a number of 

 exposures of this formation between Reno and Verdi in June of the 

 present year. It was considered that such material would be valu- 

 able as an aid in correlating the Truckee beds with other Tertiary 

 continental deposits of the Great Basin, and especially in comparing 

 the Truckee with the Esmeralda formation,- a group of similar beds 

 extensively developed 125 to 150 miles to the southeast. The age of 

 the Esmeralda has recently been definitely fixed on the basis of 

 mammalian fossil collections obtained in Stewart and lone valleys. 

 Professor J. C. Merriam has studied these collections and considers 

 them to be of approximately early upper Miocene age. The age of 

 the Esmeralda will be discussed in forthcoming papers by Professor 

 Merriam and by the writer. 



The search over the Truckee exposures yielded part of a single 

 proboscidean cheek-tooth (no. 21679 Univ. Calif. Coll. Vert. Palae.). 

 This tooth has peculiar interest as it seems to give the first definite 

 evidence of the age of the Truckee. Other evidence thus far reported 

 has been generally inconclusive. 



The proboscidean tooth was found in a section of tuffaceous and 

 arenaceous strata, dipping about 30 degrees to the northwest, about 

 three-fourths of a mile southeast of Verdi, Nevada. While the type 

 locality 3 of the Truckee beds lies in the Kawsoh Mountains and along 



1 King, Clarence, U. S. Geol. Explor. Fortieth Parallel, vol. 1, p. 412 et sen 

 1878. 



'-'Turner, H. W., Am. Geologist, vol. 25, pp. 168-170, 1900. 



3 King, Clarence, U. S. Geol. Explor. Fortieth Parallel, vol. 1, p. 415, 1878. 



