Significance of Fish Remains in Recent Deposits Off Coast of Southern California: Geological Notes

An abundance of fossil fish remains, especially well preserved scales, has been found in marine sedimentary formations of the Pacific Coast of northern America. Such materials occur from northern Washington to the Imperial Valley, and range in age from Upper Cretaceous to Pliocene. To establish the facts of ecology as applied to fossil faunas, it seems important to investigate the abundance and distribution of fish remains in Recent deposits. As yet nothing is known of these occurrences, and no attempt has been made to interpret the ecological conditions of the marine Cretaceous and Tertiary of the Pacific Coast in the light of a knowledge of comparable Recent fish-scale assemblages.