Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-15T19:59:41.303Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A mid-Oligocene (Whitneyan) rhinocerotid from northeastern California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2015

Jen A. Bright
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Science, University of California – Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA; 〈tiffney@geol.ucsb.edu〉, 〈wyss@geol.ucsb.edu〉
Bruce H. Tiffney
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Science, University of California – Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA; 〈tiffney@geol.ucsb.edu〉, 〈wyss@geol.ucsb.edu〉
André R. Wyss
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Science, University of California – Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA; 〈tiffney@geol.ucsb.edu〉, 〈wyss@geol.ucsb.edu〉

Abstract

Rhinoceroses were important in North American mammal faunas from the late middle Eocene to the Miocene, but the group’s poor sampling outside the High Plains and eastern Rocky Mountain regions during their early evolution significantly hinders understanding of their biogeography. This limited geographic sampling is particularly true of early–middle Oligocene time, with the vast majority of Whitneyan localities occurring in the White River Badlands of South Dakota. Thus, any rhinocerotid from outside the High Plains during this period is significant. We describe two new rhinocerotid specimens from the middle Oligocene Steamboat Formation of the northeastern Warner Mountains of California. Although the Steamboat Formation is well known for fossil plants, this is the first report of mammalian fossils from the area: an isolated lower molar recovered in 1974 but not previously described or illustrated, and a mandibular fragment recovered approximately 20 years later and bearing two molar teeth, most likely pertaining to the same taxon and horizon. The lack of distinctive morphological characters suggests both fossils be conservatively referred to Rhinocerotidae incertae sedis. Based on published tooth measurement data, Trigonias osborni represents the closest size match, but that species is currently only known from the Chadronian. Similarly, the Whitneyan taxon Diceratherium tridactylum is approximately the right size, but is currently only known from the High Plains and its presence in California would expand its geographic range substantially. Of greatest importance here is that sediments of the eastern Warner Mountains may represent a largely unexplored locale for early–middle Oligocene fossil vertebrates, and may yield important future finds.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2015, The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK. 〈jen.bright@sheffield.ac.uk

References

Albright, L.B. III., Woodburne, M.O., Fremd, T.J., Swisher, C.C. III., MacFadden, B.J., and Scott, G.R., 2008, Revised chronostratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the John Day Formation (Turtle Cove and Kimberly Members), Oregon, with implications for updated calibration of the Arikareean North American land mammal age: The Journal of Geology, v. 116, p. 211237.Google Scholar
Axelrod, D.I., 1966, Potassium-argon ages of some western tertiary floras: American Journal of Science, v. 264, p. 497506.Google Scholar
Colgan, J.P., Eggar, A.E., John, D.A., Cousens, B., Fleck, R.J., and Henry, C.D., 2011, Oligocene and Miocene arc volcanism in northeastern California: evidence for post-Eocene segmentation of the subducting Farallon Plate: Geosphere, v. 7, p. 733755.Google Scholar
Duffield, W.A., and McKee, E.H., 1986, Geochronology, structure, and basin-range tectonism of the Warner Range, northeastern California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 97, p. 142146.Google Scholar
Egger, A.E., and Miller, E.L., 2011, Evolution of the northwestern margin of the Basin and Range: the geology and extensional history of the Warner Range and environs, northeastern California: Geosphere, v. 7, p. 756773.Google Scholar
Egger, A.E., Colgan, J.P., and York, C., 2009, Provenance and palaeogeographic implications of Eocene-Oligocene sedimentary rocks in the northwestern Basin and Range: International Geology Review, v. 51, p. 900919.Google Scholar
Fastovsky, D.E., Clark, J.M., Strater, N.H., Montellano, M., Hernandez, R., and Hopson, J.A., 1995, Depositional environments of a Middle Jurassic terrestrial vertebrate assemblage, Huizachal Canyon, Mexico: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, v. 15, p. 561575.Google Scholar
Fisher, R.V., and Rensberger, J.M., 1972, Physical stratigraphy of the John Day Formation, central Oregon: University of California Publications in Geological Sciences, v. 101, p. 145.Google Scholar
Martz, P.W., 1970, The geology of a portion of the northern Warner Mountains, Modoc County, California. Unpublished M.S. thesis, University of California, Davis, 70 p.Google Scholar
Myers, J.A., 1998, Paleovegetational heterogeneity and the record of Eocene-Oligocene climate change in the interior Pacific northwest. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, 503 p.Google Scholar
Myers, J.A., 2006, The latest Eocene Badger’s Nose flora of the Warner Mountains, northeast California: the “in between” flora: PaleoBios, v. 26, p. 1129.Google Scholar
Prothero, D.R., 1998, Hyracodontidae, in Janis, C.M., Scott, K.M., and Jacobs, L.L., eds., Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America Volume 1: Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates, and Ungulatelike Mammals: Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p. 589594.Google Scholar
Prothero, D.R., 2005, The Evolution of North American Rhinoceroses: Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 218 p.Google Scholar
Prothero, D.R., and Swisher, C.C. III., 1992, Magnetostratigraphy and geochronology of the terrestrial Eocene-Oligocene transition in North America, in Prothero, D.R., and Berggren, W.A., eds., Eocene-Oligocene Climatic and Biotic Evolution: Princeton, Princeton University Press, p. 4665.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, R.J., 1928, Basin range structure and stratigraphy of the Warner Range, northeastern California: University of California Publications in Geological Sciences, v. 17, p. 387469.Google Scholar
Upton, E.P., and Prothero, D.R., 2009, Magnetic stratigraphy of the Eocene-Oligocene fossil plant localities: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 41, no. 7, p. 123.Google Scholar
Wall, W.P., 1998, Amynodontidae, in Janis, C.M., Scott, K.M., and Jacobs, L.L., eds., Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America Volume 1: Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates, and Ungulatelike Mammals. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p. 583588.Google Scholar
Wyss, A.R., Flynn, J.J., Norell, M.A., Swisher, C.C. III,, Novacek, M.J., McKenna, M.C., and Charrier, R., 1994, Paleogene mammals from the Andes of central Chile: a preliminary taxonomic, biostratigraphic, and geochronologic assessment: American Museum Novitates, v. 3098, p. 131.Google Scholar