Fish remains from core 8, Clear Lake, Lake County, California

Abstract

A 21.2-m-long core taken in the northwest part of the Upper Arm or main body of Clear Lake, California, has yielded a continuous record of fish life in this part of the lake during approximately the last 24,500 years. This record provides data concerning faunal changes in the Upper Arm, and also permits reconstruction of fish sizes and growth rates based upon scale remains. Four tables are presented that provide data on sample numbers and their frequency of occurrence and identification of skeletal and scale remains, and the reconstructed lengths and weights of Tule perch ( Hysterocarpus traski Gibbons) based upon remains of the scales of this species. A fifth table presents the mean reconstructed standard lengths and mean ages in years B.P. for slugs 1 through 24, 0-18.3 m. These data provide a unique data base for examination of paleoecologic and paleoclimatic trends in the North Coast Range of California through the Holocene and late Pleistocene. The record augments similar paleoecologic and paleoclimatic trends reconstructed from Core 6 and 7, taken in the Highlands and Oaks Arms of Clear Lake, respectively.