UCMP loc. 3010, Warthan Creek (Pliocene of the United States)

Where: Fresno County, California (36.1° N, 120.6° W: paleocoordinates 35.9° N, 119.4° W)

• coordinate stated in text

When: Etchegoin Formation, Early/Lower Pliocene (5.3 - 3.6 Ma)

• "Middle Etchegoin"

Environment/lithology: marginal marine; lithified, coarse-grained sandstone and conglomerate

• The beds of coal, the coarseness of the sandstones and conglomerates, the variation of the lithology within short distances, and the character of the molluscan fauna may be taken as indicative of deposition under shallow water conditions. The occurrence of quantities of gypsum at some localities, if it can be proved to be interstratified with the clastic rocks, may indicate that in part the beds are terrestrial or that the basin of deposition was nearly isolated from the sea.
• On Jacalitos Creek the Pliocene strata comprise essentially an alternation of soft coarse sandstone and conglomerate. In many of the fossiliferous horizons the beds have been much indurated, causing these strata to outcrop prominently. Of minor importance are shale, rhyolitie tuff, and thin layers of coal. A bed of silicious limestone having a thickness of about ten feet was traced more than one-half mile until cut off by faulting. A short distance above and below the limestone marine fossils were found.

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by Nomland; reposited in the UCMP

Primary reference: J. O. Nomland. 1917. The Etchegoin Pliocene of middle California. University of California Publications, Bulletin of the Department of Geology 10(14):191-254 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Marcot]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 220196: authorized by Jonathan Marcot, entered by Jonathan Marcot on 11.05.2021

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Bivalvia
 Cardiida - Mactridae
"Schizothaerus nuttallii" = Tresus nuttallii
"Schizothaerus nuttallii" = Tresus nuttallii Conrad 1837 clam
 Pholadida - Myidae
Cryptomya quadrata
Cryptomya quadrata Arnold 1909 softshell clam
 Thraciida - Thraciidae
Thracia formosa
Thracia formosa Nomland 1917 clam
Gastropoda
 Neogastropoda - Drilliidae
Drillia mercedensis
Drillia mercedensis Martin 1914 snail
 Neogastropoda - Olividae
"Olivella biplicata" = Callianax biplicata
"Olivella biplicata" = Callianax biplicata Sowerby 1825 olive snail