Review of Sespe Paleontology.: ABSTRACT

Abstract

A review of what is known of the Sespe fauna and flora leads to the following comments. 1. The meager vertebrate fauna is not diagnostic of the climate or environment or mode of deposition. It may be stated with certainty that the Sespe contains the osseous remains of land vertebrates of late Eocene, Oligocene, and early Miocene age. But it may be said with nearly equal certainty that most, if not all, of these remains have been transported some distance from the normal geographic habitat occupied by the animals in life. 2. The absence of fresh-water invertebrates supports the suggestion that the Sespe is not fluvial or lacustrine. 3. The absence of marine animals leads to the belief that the Sespe is non-marine. 4. The absence of any flora leads to the impression that the distributive provenance was without plants. 5. The concluding comment is that the Sespe is non-marine deposit derived from deeply weathered and numerous distributive land areas of high relief. Its heterogeneity of color and sorting gives it a homogeneity for field recognition, but the real nature of its deposition may perhaps be solved by some future and ingenious multiple hypothecator. End_of_Article - Last_Page 2776------------