Abstract
Two salamanders, Aneides lugubris, and Batrachoseps sp., are reported from the latest Miocene (Hemphillian) upper Mehrten Formation of the western Sierra Nevada foothills of California. A record of Batrachoseps sp. is also reported here from the Pinole Tuff of the same age in the San Francisco Bay area of California. These are the second Tertiary records of plethodontid remains and the first from west of the Rocky Mountains. The minimum age of Aneides lugubris, and the Sierra Nevada population in particular, is established at approximately five million years. This is consistent with the estimated longevity of this species based on biochemical evidence and modifies a previous biogeographic speculation. Prior to Peabody's (1959) description of late Miocene trackways of Batracho- seps from near Columbia, California, the fossil record of plethodontid salaman- ders did not extend earlier than the Pleistocene. Since then there has been only one unquestionable plethodontid record from rocks older than the Pleis- tocene-four vertebrae from the early
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