West Mojave Plan FEIR/S - Desert Managers Group

Table 3-66Barstovian FaunaHERBIVORESCARNIVORESMastodonts Gomphotherium Dog-bears HEMICYONIDSBrowsing horses (large) HYPOHIPPUS Dogs TomarctusGrazing-browsing Protohippus, Merychippus Hyaenoid dogs Aelurodon?horses (intermediate) Sabre-toothed cats MachairodontsBrowsing horses (small) Archeohippus True cats PseudaelurusPronghornsMerycodusOreodonts Brachycrus, BIRDS & REPTILESDeer Rakomeryx CondorCamels Hesperocamelus Mourning DovePeccaries Dyseohyus DucksFlamingo-like MegapaloelodusRODENTSGullsRabbits Hypolagus HawksChipmunks Tamias Owls (Great Horned)Pocket mice Perognathoides, Peridiomys Quail-like CyrotonyxDeer micePeromyscusShrews Limnoecus Tortoise(Savage, Downs, and Poe 1954:49; Davenport and Goldbrandsen 1963:4; Woodburn 1978:69-71).The Black Mountain-Gravel Hills region is a small-scale badlands north of Harper Lake.Most of the Tertiary section consists of the Barstow Formation, which is the most extensive unitin the Gravel Hills. Barstovian faunal remains of Merychippine horses and Merycodonts havebeen recovered from tuffaceous sandstone near Black Canyon (Woodburne 1978:74).A number of sites occur in relatively coarse-grained fluvial sandstone and gravel bedsnear Victorville and extend north along the Mojave River to Barstow. These deposits relate tothe uplift of the San Gabriel Mountains to the south and the history of the Mojave River. Thebest fossil specimens have been obtained from the gravel pits by Victorville, but others areknown from exposures to the north. Equus is the most common species, among otherRancholabrean fauna (Woodburne 1978:84).The Cushenbury beds are often referred to as the Old Woman Sandstone of Shreve andcomprise a succession 200 feet to 1,000 feet of massive reddish-buff and red-brownconglomeratic arkose with a matrix of uncemented, poorly sorted, coarse-grained, angularfragments of quartz, feldspar, and hornblende that support subangular to subrounded pebbles ofandesite, gneiss, quartzite, and other minor types. These lithologies are the oldest Tertiarydeposit to be derived from the San Bernardino Mountains, on the north side, and reflect uplift ofthe ranges. A small, but important, and growing collection of small mammal fossils has beencollected from the Cushenbury beds. They appear to be Blancan or late Blancan age and suggestthat the San Bernardino Mountains began shedding debris to the north about 2 million years ago.These fossils provide the only evidence for the age of that uplift (Woodburne 1978:85).Chapter 3 3-292