Blackhawk Ranch Fossil Quarry Part I

Type Horizon and Locality: Miocene, Green Valley Formation (Late Clarendonian), Contra Costa County, California, US

A rich Miocene fauna of terrestrial vertebrates have been discovered at the Blackhawk Ranch fossil quarry located on the lower slopes of Mount Diablo, California. The fossils were first studied in the 1930s and contain more than 20 different species. The illustration shows:

Alforjas magnifontis (Gregory, 1939), a camel
Borophagus littoralis Vanderhoof, 1931, a bone-crushing dog
Barbourofelis loveorum Baskin, 1981, a saber-tooth cat
Woodburnehyus grenaderae Prothero & Pollen, 2013, a peccary
Ustatochoerus major (Leidy, 1858), an oreodont
Hipparion forcei Richey, 1948, a horse
Gomphotherium obscurum Leidy, 1869, a mastodont


October 12, 2019

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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.