USGS# M4640 - Liveoak Shale Mbr, Tejon Fm, Kern County (Eocene to of the United States)

Where: Kern County, California (35.0° N, 118.8° W: paleocoordinates 36.8° N, 103.0° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Liveoak Shale Member (Tejon Formation), Ypresian to Ypresian (56.0 - 41.3 Ma)

• From Liveoak Shale Member of the Tejon Formation, which represents "Capay" through "Transition" stages for macrofossils and Penutian through Ulatisian for microfossils. Therefore an early to lower Middle Eocene=Ypresian-Lutetian age is assigned to the collection. The Tejon Formation unconformably overlies basement. The Liveoak Shale Member is the second and generally thickest member of the Tejon Formation, consisting of as much as 610 m of sandstone and siltstone.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: deep-water; lithified, fine-grained, silty sandstone and siltstone

• Deposited as turbidites in upper bathyal depths on the basis of foraminiferal paleoecology and facies.
• Massive, silty, fine-grained sandstone in irregular beds, a few inches to 8 ft thick, interbedded with siltstone and shale. Must be lithified if containing casts.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: cast, mold/impression

Reposited in the USGS

Collection methods: quarrying,

• Collected by T.H. Nilson (1971). Collections likely to be reposited at USGS Menlo Park or USNM (not specified).

Primary reference: T. H. Nilsen. 1987. Stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Eocene Tejon Formation, western Tehachapi and San Emigdio mountains, California. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 1268:1-110 [A. Miller/A. Hendy/R. McClees-Funinan]more details

Purpose of describing collection: biostratigraphic analysis

PaleoDB collection 52830: authorized by Austin Hendy, entered by Austin Hendy on 22.08.2005

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Identified by W.O. Addicott.
Bivalvia
 Mytilida - Crenellidae
Musculus sp. Roding 1798 mussel
 Ostreida - Ostreidae
Ostrea sp. Linnaeus 1758 oyster
 Carditida - Carditidae
? Venericardia sp. Lamarck 1801 clam
 Cardiida - Tellinidae
Tellina tehachapi Anderson and Hanna 1925 tellin clam
 Cardiida - Veneridae
? Callista sp. Poli 1791 venus clam
Gastropoda
 Neotaenioglossa - Calyptraeidae
Calyptraea sp. Lamarck 1799 slipper shell
 Sorbeoconcha - Naticidae
 Cerithioidea - Turritellidae
Turritella uvasana Conrad 1855 turret shell
Turritella cf. uvasana Conrad 1855 turret shell
Subspecies: Turritella uvasana neopleura
Echinoidea
 Irregularia -
Spatangoida indet. Agassiz 1840 heart urchin