The Jewett Sand Formation is a

geologic formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, USA. It preserves

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

dating back to the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

Epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...

of the

Neogene The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

Vertebrates

Cartilaginous fishes

Sharks

200px, Fossil teeth of ''C. hastalis'' *''† Alopias exigua''F. M. Anderson. 1911. The Neocene deposits of Kern River, California, and the Temblor Basin. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. 3:73-148 *''† Alopias latidens'' *''

Alopias vulpinus The common thresher (''Alopias vulpinus''), also known as Atlantic thresher, is the largest species of thresher shark, family Alopiidae, reaching some in length. About half of its length consists of the elongated upper lobe of its caudal fin. Wi ...

*''† Carcharocles angustidens *''†

Carcharodon hastalis ''Cosmopolitodus'' is an extinct genus of mackerel shark that lived between thirty to one million years ago during the late Oligocene to the Early Pleistocene epochs. Its type species is ''Cosmopolitodus hastalis'', the broad-tooth mako (other ...

*''

Carcharhinus ''Carcharhinus'' is the type genus of the family Carcharhinidae, the requiem sharks. One of 12 genera in its family, it contains over half of the species therein. It contains 35 extant and eight extinct species to date, with likely more species y ...

sp. *''

Cephaloscyllium ''Cephaloscyllium'' is a genus of catsharks, and part of the family Scyliorhinidae, commonly known as swellsharks because of their ability to inflate their bodies with water or air as a defense against predators. These sluggish, bottom-dwelling ...

sp. *''

Cetorhinus The basking shark (''Cetorhinus maximus'') is the second-largest living shark and fish, after the whale shark, and one of three plankton-eating shark species, along with the whale shark and megamouth shark. Adults typically reach in length. ...

sp. *'' Echinorhinus blakei *''† Galeocerdo medius *''† Galeorhinus latus *'' Heterodontus sp.'' *''

Hexanchus The sixgill sharks are a genus, ''Hexanchus'', of deepwater sharks in the family Hexanchidae. These sharks are characterized by a broad, pointed head, six pairs of gill slits, comb-like, yellow lower teeth, and a long tail. The largest species ca ...

sp.'' *''†

Megachasma applegatei ''Megachasma applegatei'' is an extinct species of megamouth shark from the Oligocene to early Miocene (28-23 Mya) of the Western United States. The type fossil was discovered in the San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle ...

'' K. Shimada, B. J. Welton, and D. J. Long. 2014. A new fossil megamouth shark (Lamniformes, Megachasmidae) from the Oligocene-Miocene of the western United States. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 34(2):281-290 *''†

Megalolamna paradoxodon ''Megalolamna'' is an extinct genus of lamniform shark that belongs to the family Otodontidae. Its name comes from the similarity of its teeth to those of the extant shark genus '' Lamna.'' It is known from the early Miocene Chilcatay Formation ...

'' *''† Negaprion elongata *''

Odontaspis ferox ''Odontaspis'' (from el, ὀδούς 'tooth') and el, ἀσπίς 'shield') is a genus of sand shark with two extant species. Description Bigeye sand tigers can reach a length of about and smalltooth sand tigers of about 4.1 m. They ...

*''† Parotodus benedini *''

Sphyrna ''Sphyrna'' (from the Greek word σφῦρα, "hammer") is a genus of hammerhead sharks with a cosmopolitan distribution in the world's oceans. Members of ''Sphyrna'' have a tendency to inhabit coastal waters along the intertidal zone rather th ...

sp. *''† Squalus serriculus *'' Squatina lerichi

Rays and skates

Bat Ray in kelp forest, San Clemente Island, Channel Islands, California

*''† Zapteryx californicus *'' Myliobatis californicus

Bony Fishes

Bothidae Bothidae or lefteye flounders are a family of flounders. They are called "lefteye flounders" because most species lie on the sea bottom on their right sides, with both eyes on their left sides. The family is also distinguished by the presence of ...

indet. * Embiotocidae indet. *

Gadidae The Gadidae are a family of marine fish, included in the order Gadiformes, known as the cods, codfishes, or true cods. It contains several commercially important fishes, including the cod, haddock, whiting, and pollock. Most gadid species are ...

indet. *

Pleuronectidae Pleuronectidae, also known as righteye flounders, are a family of flounders. They are called "righteye flounders" because most species lie on the sea bottom on their left sides, with both eyes on their right sides. The Paralichthyidae are the op ...

indet. *

Sciaenidae Sciaenidae are a family of fish in the order Acanthuriformes. They are commonly called drums or croakers in reference to the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds they make. The family consists of about 286 to 298 species in about 66 to 70 gen ...

indet. *

Scorpaenidae The Scorpaenidae (also known as scorpionfish) are a family of mostly marine fish that includes many of the world's most venomous species. As their name suggests, scorpionfish have a type of "sting" in the form of sharp spines coated with venom ...

indet.

Reptiles

Chelonia The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exten ...

indet. *

Crocodylia Crocodilia (or Crocodylia, both ) is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, known as crocodilians. They first appeared 95 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period (Cenomanian stage) and are the closest living ...

indet. *†'' Psephophorus calvertensis

Birds

*†'' Plotopterum joaquinensis''

Mammals

*†'' Allodesmus kernensis''L. E. Wilson. 1935. Miocene marine mammals from the Bakersfield region, California. The Peabody Museum of Natural History Bulletin. 4:1-143 *†'' Allodelphis pratti'' *†''

Anchitherium ''Anchitherium'' (meaning ''near beast'') was a fossil horse with a three-toed hoof. ''Anchitherium'' was a browsing (leaf eating) horse that originated in the early Miocene of North America and subsequently dispersed to Europe and Asia,(in Ch ...

sp.'' *†'' Argyrocetus joaquinensis *†''Argyrocetus bakersfieldensis'' *†'' Desmathyus *† Enaliarctidae indet. *†'' Enaliarctos mealsi'' *†''

Macrodelphinus kelloggi ''Macrodelphinus'' is an extinct genus of primitive odontocete known from Late Oligocene ( Chattian) marine deposits in California. Biology ''Macrodelphinus'' was an orca-sized odontocete similar to members of Eurhinodelphinidae in having a swo ...

*†'' Miodelphis californicus'' * Otariidae indet. * Phocidae indet. *

Pinnipedia Pinnipeds (pronounced ), commonly known as seals, are a widely distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammals. They comprise the extant families Odobenidae (whose only living member is the wal ...

indet. *†'' Pinnarctidion bishopi'' *†

Squalodontidae Squalodontidae or the shark-toothed dolphins is an extinct family of large toothed whales who had long narrow jaws. Squalodontids are known from all continents except Antarctica, from the Oligocene to the Neogene, but they had a maximal diversi ...

indet.

Invertebrates

Bivalves

*'' Aequipecten andersoni'' *'' Arca montareyanna'' *'' Chione temblorensis'' *'' Clementia pertenuis'' *'' Crassostrea titan'' *'' Crenomytilus mathewsoni'' *'' Cytheria matthewsoni'' *'' Dosinia conradi'' *''Dosinia whitneyi'' *''

Glycymeris septentrionalis ''Glycymeris'', common name the bittersweet clams, is a genus of saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Glycymerididae.MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Glycymeris da Costa, 1778. Accessed through: World Register of Marine ...

'' *'' Homomya sp.'' *'' Mactromeris albaria'' *'' Mytilus sp.'' *'' Nodipecten estrellanus'' *'' Pecten bowersi'' *''Pecten magnolia'' *''Pecten nevadaensis'' *''Pecten perrini'' *''Pecten sespeensis'' *'' Pectunculus branneri'' *'' Phacoides actulineatus'' *'' Pinna alamedaensis'' *'' Pycnodonte eldridgei'' *'' Solen sp.'' *'' Tellina ocoyana'' *''Tellina sp.'' *'' Trachycardium vaquerosensis''

Gastropods

*'' Agasoma gravidum'' *''Agasoma kerrianum'' *'' Conus oweni'' *'' Crepidula princeps'' *'' Epitonium rugiferum'' *'' Natica lewisi'' *'' Neverita callosa'' *'' Purpura lima''

Scaphopods

*'' Dentalium sp.''

Vertebrates

Cartilaginous fishes

Sharks

Rays and skates

Bony Fishes

Reptiles

Birds

Mammals

Invertebrates

Bivalves

Gastropods

Scaphopods

References

See also