Pleistocene Terrestrial Vertebrates from near Point San Luis, and Other Localities in San Luis Obispo County, California

Abstract

Terrestrial vertebrate remains were recovered from sediments that He <br /><br />on remnants of the lowest marine wave-cut platform between Point Buchon and <br /><br />Point San Luis. Uranium series ages of these samples, which range from 83 to <br /><br />about 49 ka suggest a correlation to late Pleistocene climatic and eustatic events <br /><br />associated with marine oxygen isotope substage 5a, and establish a maximum age <br /><br />of ~80 ka for the occurrence of terrestrial mammal fossils. The Point San Luis <br /><br />area assemblage appears typical of the late Pleistocene regional vertebrate paleo- <br /><br />fauna from west-central California. Five mammalian taxa are added to the Pleis- <br /><br />tocene record from San Luis Obispo County. Equus sp. cf. E. occidentalis, Ca- <br /><br />melops sp. cf. C. hesternus, and Bison antiquus were recovered from the Point <br /><br />San Luis area, and Mammut americanum and B. latifrons from near Morro Bay <br /><br />and the Carrizo Plains in eastern San Luis Obispo County.