Fossil mammals of the Purisima Formation at Half Moon Bay, California (and vicinity)

Type Horizon and Locality: Upper Miocene to Upper Pliocene, Purisima Formation (Messinian to Piacenzian), Half Moon Bay, San Mateo County, CA


The Upper Miocene to Early Pleistocene Purisima Formation with outcrops along the coast of California from Santa Cruz county in the south to Marin county to the North is known for its rich fauna of marine vertebrates. Here is a sampling of fossil found in San Mateo county around Half Moon Bay, including the miniature mink whale Balaenoptera bertae, the bizarre porpoise Semirostrum cerrutii, the walrus Dusignathus santacruzensis, the fur seal Callorhinus gilmorei, the dolphin Parapontoporia sternbergi and the cetothere whale Herpetocetus bramblei. The fauna also includes a number of larger whales (Balaenoptera and Eubalaena). a number of different toothed whales and at least one species of sperm whale, marine birds such as Pelargonis and Mancala, sharks (great white shark, basking shark, mako shark, etc...) and other fish.

January 28, 2018

References:
Boessenecker, R. W. (2012). A new marine vertebrate assemblage from the Late Neogene Purisima Formation in Central California, part II: Pinnipeds and Cetaceans. Geodiversitas, 35(4), 815-940.

All illustrations on this site are copyrighted to Nobu Tamura.  The low resolution versions of the images are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution- ShareAlike (CC BY-SA)  license meaning that you are free to use them  as long as you properly credit the author (© N. Tamura). High resolution versions are available upon request. Questions: contact me at nobu dot tamura at yahoo dot com.