Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists
Annual Meeting
February 19-20, 2011
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90007
SECOND CIRCULAR
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is honored to be hosting the 2011 meeting of the Western
Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists (WAVP).
Directions to the Museum are available at:
http://www.nhm.org/site/plan-your-visit/directions-parking
Meeting participants will enter the museum through the staff entrance (west end of the building, also labeled
Delacour Auditorium).
The meeting registration will begin at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 19 in the Times Mirror Room on the
ground floor of the Natural History Museum. Oral presentations will begin at 8:00 a.m. in the Times Mirror Room
and will continue until about 5:00 or 6:00 p.m., depending upon how many talks are submitted.
A field trip will be organized to Sespe and other formation sites in the Simi Valley and environs on Sunday,
February 20. The itinerary will include visits to middle Eocene to middle Miocene fossil-bearing exposures of the
Sespe and Topanga Formations in Simi Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains. These formations record the
uplift of the southern California continental margin that accompanied the approach of the East Pacific Rise, and
the subsequent subsidence of the margin following its collision with the rise. The first stop on the fieldtrip will be
the Simi Valley Landfill, where the middle part of the Sespe Formation has yielded land mammal assemblages of
late Uintan to late Duchesnean age. The upper part of the formation in the surrounding area is visible from the
landfill and has produced land mammal faunas of early Arikareean age. The second stop will be at Saddle Peak in
the Santa Monica Mountains, where the Piuma Member of the Sespe Formation contains fossil land mammal
assemblages of early Arikareean and early Hemingfordian age at the very bottom and top of the unit, a marine
tongue near the middle of the unit that has yielded middle Vaquerosian marine invertebrates and vertebrates and
land plants, and two dated tuffs, which bracket the marine tongue. The overlying Saddle Peak Member of the
Lower Topanga Formation has yielded Temblorian marine mollusks and contains a distinctive pecten reef marker
bed near its base. A brief stop will be make at the nearby Stunt Road locality, where numerous, middle
Hemingfordian, land mammal remains occur in the Fernwood Member, which overlies the Saddle Peak Member.
The last stop will be along Calabasas Peak Motorway in the Santa Monica Mountains. Here, middle or late
Hemingfordian land mammal and land plants have been found at the top of the Fernwood Member and marine
invertebrates and mammals have been found at the base of the overlying Cold Creek Member. The world famous
Old Topanga fossil localities can be seen immediately north of the motorway along Old Topanga Canyon Road.
Please let us know if you are planning to participate in the field trip so that we can print the requisite number of
field guides.
Registration for the meeting will be $20.00, which covers use of the facilities and drinks and snacks during the
meeting. You can pay by cash, money order, or a check made out to “LACM Foundation ” in the amount of
$20.00.
Abstracts will be due on or before Friday, February 11. Abstracts should be in the format for the SVP meetings
and sent to jharris@nhm.org or wavp@nhm.org as a word attachment to an email. These will provide the basis
for the program. Printed copies of the abstracts will be available at the meeting.
Parking. Paid parking (currently $8.00) will be available in Lot 3, off Bill Robertson Avenue and across the street
from the west end of the museum. There are other parking lots in and adjacent to Exposition Park.
Food and lodging: For lunch on Saturday, the museum’s cafeteria will have available a variety of sandwiches,
salads, drinks and snacks. There are other “eateries” in the adjoining California Science Center and across the
road at USC. For those of you that are coming from some distance away, we will circulate a list of local motels
early in the New Year.
Web site: We hope to have a WAVP 2011 meeting web site up and running shortly.
yosoygeologo@gmail.com
Dr. Gregg Wilkerson
7005 Hooper Ave.
Bakersfield, CA 93308
work: 661-391-6081
cell: 661-246-9495
gwilkerson@bak.rr.com