AVIFAUNAS OF THE MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE IRVINGTON AND FAIRMEAD LANDFILL LOCALITIES IN CALIFORNIA

Two previously unpublished avifaunas, Irvington in the San Francisco Bay area and Fairmead Landfill in the San Joaquin Valley, provide insight into the middle Pleistocene birds of coastal and interior central California respectively. Specimens are curated in the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) and Madera County Paleontology Collection (MCPC). Located 10 miles north of Madera, California, Fairmead Landfill has yielded thousands of specimens from 0.78 Ma-0.55 Ma age alluvial fan deposits. The biota consists of 72 taxa (29 mammals, 6 birds, 3 reptiles, 2 amphibians, 2 fish, 1 bivalve, 1 gastropod, 12 plants/palynomorphs, 16 diatoms). Among the finds are 21 bird specimens, representing at least six taxa, including small goose cf. Branta sp. (MCPC A1102 synsacrum), Canada Goose Branta canadensis (MCPC A1103 left distal humerus), Common Shelduck Tadorna tadorna (UCMP 140414 right distal humerus, UCMP 141403 right humerus, UCMP 194432 right humerus), diving duck cf. Aythya sp. (UCMP 194433 right tarsometatarsus), Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura (MCPC A1560 left proximal tarsometatarsus), burrowing owl Athene cunicularia (MCPC A1300 left distal tarsometatarsus), and Tundra Swan Cygnus columbianus (MCPC A1086 right coracoid). Located in Fremont, California, the Irvington biota was recovered from fluvial deposits in a gravel quarry. Type locality of the Irvingtonian land mammal age, Irvington fossils were preserved in reversely magnetized strata representing the upper part of the Matuyama magnetic polarity chron (> 0.78 Ma). The Irvington biota includes 53 taxa (30 mammals, 7 birds, 4 fish, 4 amphibians, 3 reptiles, 5 mollusks). Seven bird taxa are represented by 17 specimens which include Ardeidae (UCMP 67817 distal ulna), Anatidae (UCMP 80995 left humerus, UCMP 67817 radius, UCMP 80997 distal ulna, UCMP 80996 proximal femur, UCMP 42292 coracoid), Canada Goose Branta canadensis (UCMP 38336 left humerus), American Neophron Neophrontops americanus (UCMP 80998 left humerus), Phasianidae (UCMP 80992 distal femur, UCMP 80994 left coracoid), Meleagridae (UCMP 80993 distal femur), and Passeriformes (UCMP 80986 carpometacarpus, UCMP 80988 left ulna, UCMP 80989 left humerus, UCMP 80990 coracoid, UCMP 80991 coracoid).