Fossil Mammals from Baja California: New Evidence on Early Tertiary Migrations

Abstract

Ungulates belonging to the family Barylambdidae were found in the same geologic unit with, but stratigraphically above, a specimen assigned to the Tillodontia and above several molars of the perissodactyl cf. Hyracotherium sp. This arrangement is unusual, as in the well-documented faunas from the Rocky Mountain Region Barylambdidae are known only from the Paleocene, Tillodontia from the Paleocene and Eocene, while Hyracotherium is known only from the Eocene. The expected stratigraphic order would be, from lowest to highest, Barylambdidae, Tillodontia, and Hyracotherium. It is suggested that the Baja California assemblage is late Paleocene on the basis of the generalized molars of cf. Hyracotherium sp. and the characters of cf. Esthonyx sp.