FOSSIL CAMELS FROM THE LATE OLIGOCENE EASTLAKE LOCAL FAUNA, OTAY FORMATION, SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

Fossil camel skulls and jaws recovered from the upper Oligocene Otay Formation (Eastlake local fauna) in southern San Diego County has never been fully described or identified. Re-examination of this material and comparison with camels described by Prothero (1996) shows that the San Diego camel is referable to Miotylopus leonardi (Loomis, 1911), the smallest of three species of the primitive stenomyline camel Miotylopus previously known only from the early to middle Arikareean deposits (Gering-Monroe Creek equivalents) from eastern Wyoming. Both the small and medium-sized morphs from Wyoming include clear examples of male and female jaws with their distinctive canines, ruling out a size difference due to sexual dimorphism. The larger camel Dyseotylopus migrans (Stock, 1935) from the upper Oligocene Sespe Formation in Ventura County is a junior synonym of the medium-sized stenomyline Miotylopus gibbi (Loomis, 1911) from the same Arikareean beds in Wyoming. These identifications extend the geographic range of these previously rare and poorly understood camels from a limited area of eastern Wyoming to the Pacific Coast.