Title: An assessment of the vertebrate paleoecology and biostratigraphy of the Sespe Formation, Southern California
Abstract: Fossil vertebrates occurring in the continental Sespe Formation of southern California indicate that deposition of the upper third of the lower member and the middle and upper members of the formation took place between Uintan (middle Eocene) and late early or early late Arikareean (latest Oligocene or earliest Miocene) time.Chadronian (latest Eocene) mammalian faunas are unknown and indicate a period of intraformational erosion also substantiated by sedimentologic data.The Sespe environment was probably savannah with gallery forest that formed under a climate with wet and dry seasons.More detailed knowledge of Sespe sediment accumulation rates and paleoclimates can be obtained through paleosol and alluvial architecture studies.