Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Fruits_ocr.pdf

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/v118rg62t

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  • More than 4,000 specimens of fruits and seeds were extracted from the matrix removed from inside the skulls of sabre-tooth cats excavated from various pits in the Rancho La Brea deposits. Of this number, spproximately 1,445 specimens are involved in this study. Many comparisons with modern fruits and seeds made it possible to make identification of this material. There are 15 families comprising 20 genera and 30 species recorded in this report of the Rancho La Brea Pleistocene flora. Of this number, four species and four varieties are new to the Pleistocene floras. Eleven of the 30 species occur in the flora of the area today, eleven now occur in areas so remote from the Rancho La Brea site that they could not have been carried by flood waters into the areas of deposition, and therefore, must have been living near to the asphalt beds in order that entrapment could occur. Eight of the species are now extinct. Based on the requirements of their modern counterparts, ecologically, many of the species live in riparian situations or more moist locations than prevail today in the area of deposition. The average rainfall for the range of a number of the modern representatives of the fossils was correlated. From these data it appears that the climate may have been cooler and more moist during the period of deposition, and the species occurring in southern California at that time would have required 2- to 25 inches for their continued existence. It may be assumed that when this average dropped below 20 inches for long periods of time, the species either receded to areas with suitable rainfall or became extinct.
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