A Tertiary mammalian fauna from the Mint Canyon Formation of southern California

Abstract

The Mint Canyon beds, typically exposed in Mint Canyon, seven miles northeast of Saugus, California, were described by Dr. W. S. W. Kew in Bulletin 753 (1924) of the United States Geological Survey. In 1919 during the course of geologic mapping of this region by Kew, fossil vertebrate remains were found at several localities. A provisional list of the vertebrates represented in the collection made at that time by Dr. Kew and by Dr. Chester Stock was recorded in Bulletin 753. However, no detailed study of the material was made. Further mammalian remains were secured from the Mint Canyon formation by Mr. J. W. Mitchell, Mr. Thomas Clements, Mr. H.J. Buddenhagen, by the Los Angeles Museum, and by the writer. In view of the position of the Mint Canyon beds, immediately below a series of marine formations of the Pacific Coast Marine Province, the terrestrial fauna secured from these deposits is not only important in establishing the age of the Mint Canyon but also furnishes a basis for a comparison of the Tertiary record of this region with tha.t of the Great Basin to the east. Opportunities to correlate the Tertiary record of the marginal marine province with the terrestrial record of the Great Basin on the basis of land vertebrates a.re infrequent and warrant in the present instance a careful survey of the Mint Canyon fauna.

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