Palaeotaricha oligocenica, new genus and species, an Oligocene salamander from Oregon

E V I O R A Museunn of Comparative Zoology Cambridge, Mass. June 13, 1955 Number 45 PALAEOTAincHA OLiaOCENKW, NEW GENUS AND SPECIES, AN OLKiOCENE SALAMANDER FROM OREGON. By Richard van Frank In 1951 Mr. George R. K. Moorhead, a member of the Salem (Oregon) Geological Society, collected a fossil urodele in a small slab of shale from a locality situated about three miles southeast of Eugene, and about V4 ^^^il© north of Goshen, Oregon. The specimen was sent by Dr. Herman Clark of Willamette Univer-sity to the Museum of Comparative Zoology for stndy. The strata in which the fossil was found are designated by Vokes ef al. (1951) as post-Fisher and Eugene (Oligocene) plant-bearing tuifs. These strata are described by the authors as "a secpience of apparently water-laid coarse tuffs with inter-bedded thin layers of carbonaceous gray shale . . . [containing] an abundant flora . . . [of which fifteen species] were determined by Dr. Roland Brown,' who assigned a late Oligocene age to the containing strata." Dr. Ralph W. Chanej' of the University of California has written me that he too considers the strata to be younger than Eugene or Fisher, and is terming the strata the Willamette formation. On the other hand. Dr. Clark writes that he and Dr. Ewart M. Baldwin of the University of Oregon prefer to assign them to the Eugene formation, although conclusive evidence is lacking. At any rate, all concerned seem confident of the Upper Oligocene age of the deposit. It is the gray shale just mentioned which eontains the salamander. The specimen is about 120 mm. in total length, and lacks a centimeter or so of the tail, the right mandible, most of the ribs, the left scapula and humerus, and parts of the hyoid apparatus. It is black in color, apparently highly carbonized. The skull is 1 and listed by Vokes ef al. (1951)

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Palaeotaricha oligocenica, new genus and species, an Oligocene salamander from Oregon

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