LATE MIOCENE FISHES OF THE CACHE VALLEY MEMBER, SALT LAKE FORMATION, UTAH AND IDAHO

Abstract

Fish fossils from the Neogene Salt Lake Formation in the vicinity of Cache Valley, Utah, were discovered in tuffaceous marl near Paradise, in southern Cache County, by Utah State University Professor J. Stewart Williams, and later in lacustrine carbonates in the Junction Hills, in adjacent eastern Box Elder County, by Williams’ student, P. H. McClellan. In both cases, the fossils are from the Cache Valley Member of the formation, which is generally upper Miocene in this vicinity. The Junction Hills Local Fauna, and fish fossils collected from equivalent Salt Lake beds near Georgetown, Idaho, contain 11 fish species in four families and eight genera and are here called the Cache Valley paleofauna.