BULLETIN 92 FOSSILS IN OREGON A.: C.P L l EC T1 0 N 0 F R-EPR l N T S F..«OM lft� Ol£ Bl N STATE OF OREGON DE PARTMENT OF GEOLOGY AND MINERAL INDUSTRIES 1069 State Office Building, Portland, Oregon 97201 BULLETIN 92 FOSSILS IN OREGON A COLLECTION OF REPRINTS FROM THE ORE BIN Margaret L. Steere, Editor 1977 GOVERNING BOARD R . W. deWeese, Chairman Portland STATE GEOLOGIST Leeanne Mac Co 11 Portland Ralph S. Mason Robert W. Doty Talent PALEONTOLOGICAL TIME CHART FOR OREGON ERA I PERIOD EPOCH CHARACTERISTIC PLANTS AND ANIMALS AGE* HOLOCENE Plant and animal remains: unfossilized. ".11- Mastodons and giant beavers in Willamette Valley. PLEISTOCENE Camels and horses in grasslands east of Cascade Range. >- Fresh-water fish in pl�vial lakes of south-central Oregon. <("" z: ?-3- LU"" Sea shell animals along Curry County coast. >-- <( Horses, camels, antelopes, bears, and mastodons in grass- ::::> 0' PLIOCENE lands and swamps east of Cascade Range. Oaks, maples, willows in Sandy River valley and rhe Dalles area. 12- Sea shell animals, fish, whales, sea lions in coastal bays. Horses ( Merychippus ) , camels, Creodonts, rodents in John u MIOCENE Day valley. � 0 Forests of Metasequoia, ginkgo, sycamore, oak, and sweet N 0 gum in eastern and western Oregon. z: LU u 26- Abundant and varied shell animals in warm seas occupying Willamette Valley. >- "" OLIGOCENE Three-toed horses, camels, giant pigs, saber-tooth cats, Creodonts, tapirs, rhinos in centra Oregon. ;:;>-- 1 Forests of Metasequoia, ginkgo, sycamore, Katsura. LU"" >-- 37- Tiny four-toed horses, rhinos, tapirs, crocodiles, and Brontotherium in central Oregon. Variety of shell animals in warm seas covering most of EOCENE western Oregon. Subtropica 1 forests: Palms, figs, avocados, pecans, walnuts, and ferns in central Oregon. 60= Ammonites, Trigonia, Inoceramus, and many other shell CRETACEOUS animals in seas extending into eastern Oregon. Tree ferns ( Tempskya ) on land areas. u 136- Brachiopods, ammonites, gastropods, nautiloids in seas 0 N in central Oregon. 0 JURASSIC Vl Marine reptiles on southern coast and in central Oregon. LU ::E Tree ferns, cycads, ginkgos, and conifers on land areas. 195- Sponges, corals, ammonites, gastropods, nautiloids in TRIASSIC seas of central Oregon. 25- PERMIAN Limestone reefs, fusulinids in seas of centra 1 Oregon. 280- Brachiopods and corals in seas of central Oregon. CARBONIFEROUS Ferns, Calamites on land areas in central Oregon. 345- DEVONIAN Corals and bryozoans in seas of central Oregon. u 0N 395- 0 LU PRE-DEVONIAN No recognizable fossils. ...J <( c.. *in millions of years i i CONTENTS page Paleontological Time Chart for Oregon. ii Introduction . iv Fossil Plants. Fossil woods of the Thomas Creek area, Linn County, Oregon, by Wallace Eubanks. 3 Fossil woods supplement knowledge of the Succor Creek flora, by Wa11 ace Eubanks . 8 The fossil woods near Holley in the Sweet Home Petri- fied Forest, Linn County, Oregon, by Irene Gregory. 17 Fossilized palm wood in Oregon, by Irene Gregory 37 A fossil pine forest in the Blue Mountains of Oregon, by Irene Gregory . 55 An ancient Acacia wood from Oregon, by Irene Gregory 63 An extinct Evodia wood from Oregon, by Irene Gregory 69 Worm-bored poplar from the Eocene of Oregon, by Irene Gregory . 74 Plant fossils in the Clarno Formation, Oregon, by Herbert L. Hergert 76 The Oligocene Lyons flora of northwestern Oregon, by Herb Meyer . 89 Preliminary report on fossil fruits and seeds from the mammal quarry of the Clarno Formation, Oregon, by Thomas M. McKee 104 Fossil Animals 121 Freshwater fish remains from the Clarno Formation, Ochoco Mountains of north-central Oregon, by Ted M. Cavender . 123 A large fossil sand shark of the genus Odontaspis from Oregon, by Shelton P. Applegate 140 Fossil sharks in Oregon, by Bruce J. Welton . 145 Oregon Eocene decapod crustacea, by W.N. Orr and M.A. Kooser. 155 The trace fossil Tisoa in Washington and Oregon, by Robert W. Frey-ana-John G. Cowles 166 Fossil bighorn sheep from Lake County, Oregon, by Richard E. Thoms and Harold Cramer Smith . 173 Fossil Localities 183 Fossil localities of the Sunset Highway area, Oregon, by Margaret L. Steere 185 Fossil localities of the Eugene area, Oregon, by Margaret L. Steere 194 Fossil localities of the Salem-Dallas area, Oregon, by Margaret L. Steere 203 Fossil localities of Lincoln County beaches, Oregon, by Margaret L. Steere 215 Fossil localities in the Coos Bay area, Oregon, by Margaret L. Steere 222 iii INTRODUCTION This booklet contains 22 articles on fossils published in The ORE BIN between 1954 and 1976: 11 are about fossil plants; 6 are about fossil animals; and 5 describe fossil localities. No articles on microfossils are included. Most of the articles are reprinted in their original form. Exceptions are those in the old format, which have been arranged here to fit the present ORE BIN page size. The older articles in this collection have been slightly re­ vised to conform to present-day spellin g and usage of formation names, and some new data and references have been added. Special attention has been given the report on the fossil localities of the Sunset Highway area because of the proximity of these local­ ities to Portland and the large number of people who visit them. Most of the Sunset Highway localities were re-examined, and the descriptions were updated to make that article more useful. Information about fossil localities in the Eugene area was made current through the assistance of Dr. Ewart Baldwin, Uni­ versity of Oregon. In addition, some of the information on the Salem-Dallas area was revised. It was not practical to visit all of the specific localities mentioned in these articles; it is probable that some no longer exist; highway construction, urban development, weathering, and over-zealous digging by fossil hunters have taken their toll on many of the outcrops. In some cases, fossil sites once access­ ible to the public are now posted as private property, and per­ mission to enter must be obtained from the owner. M. L. Steere Geologist iv FOSSIL PLANTS REPRINTED FROM The ORE BIN Vol. 22, no. 7, p. 65-69 July 1960 FOSSIL WOODS OF THE THOMAS CREEK AREA, LINN COUNTY, OREGON By Wallace Eubanks* Id entifying Fossil Woods The purposes of identifying fossil woods ore to aid in geological doting; to verify and supplement identification of fossil leaves, fruits, and flowers; to trace the movement of plant associations through time and across land areas; and to satisfy the curiosity of man. Fossil wood, to be identifiable, must show clear and undistorted cell structure. Much of the fossil wood commonly collected in Oregon shows poor structure because the cells hove been either crushed during geological chol'!ges in the earth or destroyed by chemical processes . In general, the ordinary grey-brown woods of western Oregon, as well as the block carbonized woods, hove good cell structure. But most of the color­ ful eastern Oregon woods, which ore usually highly ogotized or opolized, hove lost their identifiable characteristics. The wood best suited to polish­ ing is usually the poorest for identification. It should be pointed out at the start that identification of fossil woods is based entirely on comparison with living woods. No book on fossil­ wood identification has os yet been published. Identifying fossil woods is o painstaking job ond sometimes frustrating because many fossil woods have no exact living counterpart. Furthermore , they lock the useful character­ istics of living woods, such os weight, color, odor, taste , and hardness. Since the system of plant classification and nomenclature established for living plants is also used for fossil plants, standard textbooks of botany will supply this basic information. In addition, books on living woods will furnish detailed descriptions of wood anatomy and nomenclature (see bib- 1 iogrophy) . Although it is possible, with a little practice, to recognize a few types of fossil woods without a microscope, comprehensive work requires magnification ranging from 30 to 400 power. The reason for this is that woods are differentiated on the basis of certain cell types and arrangements, *Supervisor, Timber Section, Assessment and Appraisal Div., Oregon Dept. of Revenue 3 and these features ore visible only under considerable magnification. For example, the woods of Acer {maple) and Cornus (dogwood), which ore very similar, con be distinguished only by examining the cells of the rays. Like­ wise, Pinus (pine) and Piceo (spruce), which also look very much alike, con be distinguished only by observing the nature of the epithelial cells around the resin ducts. In order to study the features of fossil wood with o microscope, it is first necessary to prepare thin sections of the three standard views of wood structure, namely, the cross, radial, and tangential sections (Figure 1). Orienting the cuts to obtain these three views of the cell structure is the most difficult port of making the thin sections. The cut sections ore ground to a thickness of only one or two cells so that light will pass through and the details of each kind of cell will be mode visible. All three views ore then placed on one slide. The next step is to determine whether the wood is hardwood or con­ ifer by inspecting it under low magnification (Figure 2). After this distinc­ tion has been mode, the minute detoi Is of cell arrangement ore studied under the microscope. For most hardwoods, a microscope with 150 power is adequate, but for conifers, 350 to 400 power is necessary for observation of the cross-field pitting. By means of keys to the features of wood anatomy, together with published descriptions and photomicrographs of known woods, it is possible to arrive at on identification of a particular piece of fossil wood.