Magnetic polarity stratigraphy of the Mio-Pliocene mammal-bearing Big Sandy Formation of western Arizona

The Big Sandy Formation in western Arizona consists of up to 65 m of clays, silts, sands and volcanic ashes that were deposited in a lacustrine paleoenvironment. Three paleomagnetic samples were collected from each of 54 sites spaced at stratigraphic intervals of no more than 5 m. After laboratory studies of pilot samples to determine their paleomagnetic characteristics, all other samples were measured for their NRM and then demagnetized in alternating fields of 150 Oe. After statistical filtering and a hierarchical site classification, 48 sites were used to interpret the magnetic polarity zonation.Vertebrate fossils from the Big Sandy Formation are collectively termed the Wikieup Local Fauna, and indicate a late Hemphillian Land Mammal “Age”. Three fission-track (zircon) dates from the Big Sandy Formation yielded a mean age of 5.5 ± 0.2 m.y. B.P. Using these radiometric data to calibrate the magnetic polarity zonation, it appears that the Big Sandy Formation spans late Epoch 6 to early Gilbert time (late Miocene to early Pliocene). The Wikieup Local Fauna is compared to two other roughly contemporaneous mammalian assemblages from New Mexico and Texas. Faunal differences previously thought to represent a very late Hemphillian age for the Wikieup Local Fauna are apparently related to ecogeographic variation and not time.