1931/03/01 by Loye Miller · 4 citations
Environmental Science · #Rangeland and Wildlife Management #Avian ecology and behavior #Wildlife-Road Interactions and Conservation #Miller #Archaeology #Geography #Environmental ethics #History #Library science #Ecology #Biology #Philosophy #Computer science
paper · doi:10.2307/1363312
openalex publication_date 1931/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
There were lately placed in my hands by Dr. Chester Stock, of the California Institute of Technology, two fragmentary bird bones that are of much interest.First of all, our knowledge of the Pliocene avifauna of California is but meager and anything that adds detail to the impressionistic picture is most welcome.Secondly, those Pliocene horizons that have yielded bird remains have, with one exception, been marine deposits and do not include land birds, whereas our Pleistocene avifaunas are nearly all from land-laid deposits.The formation here discussed is seemingly a fluviatile deposit and it contains a fairly rich mammal fauna upon which age determinations are based with a fair degree of confidence.A third factor of interest lies in the relationships of the species recorded.The remains were collected by field workers of the California Institute of Technology in their station number 49 on Pozo Creek-Kern River Divide, Kern County, California, approximately nine miles northeast of Bakersfield in SE g of Sec. 23, T. 28 S., R. 28 E., Mount Diablo principal meridian.The formation is a series of land-laid continental beds of seemingly fluviatile or lacustrine origin.Some twenty species of mammals have been identified from the locality, including Pliohippus, Merychodus, Bassariscus antiquus, camels, rhinos, and peccaries.From their studies of these mammalian remains, Stock and Furlong consider the beds to be of middle or lower Pliocene, and to represent a stage closely approximating the Ricardo beds which lie farther to the south and on the opposite side of the Sierran divide.The only bird yet recorded from the Ricardo is the goose, Branta howardae.Both species here discussed are diurnal raptors.-Type specimen.-Number 454