26 



University of California Publications in Geology [Vol. 13 



DESCRIPTION OF NEW FORMS 



Family Otariidae 



Otarid remains are a rarity in all collections at the present writing 

 and, so far as known, all the Miocene forms of North America are 

 from the Pacific Coast. This material is of much significance because 

 of the prophetic characters exhibited by it. 



ALLODESMUS, n. gen. 



dXXos, strange; 5e<r/x6s, bond. 



Type specimen. — A right mandibular ramus, no. 275, Calif. Acad. Sci. coll., 

 from the Temblor beds of the Kern River region, about 12 miles from Bakers- 

 field, Kern County, California. 



Referred specimens. — Teeth and skeletal element, also from the Temblor beds, 

 near Bakersfield, California. 



Characters. — Mandibular ramus massive. Mj large, with two roots. Mj re- 

 duced, with one root. Astragalus with shallow trochlea and astragalar foramen. 



ALLODESMUS KEBNENSIS, n. sp. 



During one of the fossil-hunting trips of Mr. Charles Morrice, he 

 was so fortunate as to find a right mandibular ramus (figs, la, lb) 

 which represents a new extinct pinniped evidently very closely allied 

 to the existing otarids, though much more generalized. This specimen, 

 together with a few teeth hereafter described, was presented by 

 Mr. Morrice to the California Academy of Sciences and the authorities 

 of that institution very generously allowed the writer to describe it 

 along with the material which was presented by the same collector 

 to the Department of Paleontology of the University of California. 



The horizontal ramus of the mandible is incomplete, with the 

 ascending ramus broken off slightly posterior to the plane of coronoid ; 

 also the major portion of the inferior margin is missing. It is of 

 considerable interest to note that this mandible is characterized by 

 the great depth of the ramus behind the canine, thus differing very 

 strongly from the Upper Miocene form Prorosmarus alleni which was 

 described by Berry and Gregory 1 and interpreted by them as having 

 certain characters which approached the Otariidae. On the whole it 

 is suggestive of Mironnga angustirostris in the great depth of the 

 horizontal ramus, the outline of the symphysis, and the anterior 



i Berry, E. W., and Gregory, W. K., Prorosmarus alleni, a new genus and species 

 of walrus from the Upper Miocene of Yorktown, Virginia, Am. Jour. Sci. (4), 

 vol. 21, pp. 444-450, text figs. 1-4, 1906. 



