LOWER CRETACEOUS DEPOSITS CALIFORNIA AND OREGON

54 LOWER CRETACEOUS DEPOSITS INT CALIFORNIA AND OREGON
plied helpful data bearing upon this problem in the environs of this valley.
Many of the exposures described by him are referable to the Paskenta
group, and others to the Knoxville series. In all instances in which
Aucella crassicaUia and associated forms have been listed, the strata should
be regarded as belonging to the Paskenta group.
A locality described by Branner, Newsom, and Arnold (1959) as 3
miles west of Redwood has yielded Aucella crassicollis and Amberlya
dilleri, both belonging in the lower beds of the Paskenta group. Smith
has recorded the finding of "Hoplites" a few miles to the north of this locality.
All these forms are referable to the Paskenta group. More recently
O. P. Jenkins and E. W. Galliher 9 have discovered fragments of a
erioceratid shell in the dark shales at Point San Pedro, which seems to fix
the age of these beds as lower Horsetown.
In 1903 Josiah Owen discovered a large specmen of Inaceramus near
I. vallejosnsis nov., in dark shales near Alma, south of Los Gatos, which
indicates the Paskenta group.
Diablo Range.—Some evidence has recently been discovered proving the
occurrence of Lower Cretaceous strata in various parts of this range, tho
accounts of which have not yet been published, but they show the presence
there of both Paskenta and Horsetown beds. Pack and English (1914)
report tbe finding of AuceUa crassicollis in Lower Cretaceous strata in the
Waltham Creek Valley, southwest of Coalinga. During field work in
1937 N. L. Taliaferro discovered Knoxville beds with Aucella hyatti and
fragments of Perisphinctid shells in the Waltham Creek Valley, not far
from the Fresno Hot Springs.
These beds were overlaid unconfonnably by basal Paskenta conglomerate,
containing Neocomiks neocomiensis (d'Orbigny) and A croleuthis
macarthyeims nov. Near Orchard Peak (Devils Den district), G. D.
Hanna and C. C. Church obtained many fossils from calcareous gray
shales in the lower part of a thick sequence of beds dipping toward the
northeast. These fossils include Aucella erassa, A. crassicollis, A. inflata,
Acroteuihis impressa, A. kcrnensis, and Lytoceraa cf. salwrndle. These
species were found in near-basal beds, which here rest upon Franciscan
rocks and serpentine, with no Knoxville beds intervening. It could be
inferred from the facts thus far recorded that only the lower part of the
Shasta series (Paskenta) occurs in the Diablo Range, but in addition to
the above records it may be stated tbat both lower and upper Horsetown
fossils have been found on the eastern flank of the range, especially north
of the Panoche Hills. These include species of Neocraspedites, Hcmibaculites,
Sonneratia, and Beudaniiceras. Near Quinto Creek, southern
Stanislaus County, Paskenta beds with Aucella erassa, A. crassicollis, and
belenmitea, occur, overlying Knoxville beds containing AuceUa stantoni,
A. krotovi, and a small species of Oppelia (Slreblites).
• All eil*tion* without referrata ST a Iroro uiipvbLiahed no(«.