Santa Rosae
Encyclopedia

Santa Rosae was an ancient landmass off the coast of present-day southern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, near Ventura County and Santa Barbara County, of which the northern Channel Islands of California
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America...

 are remnants.

Before the end of the last ice age
Wisconsin glaciation
The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age occurring during the last years of the Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years ago....

, the northern four Channel Islands of California
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America...

 were linked in a single contiguous island only 4.7 miles offshore. Geography took its present shape after the continental ice sheets melted and sea levels rose 120 metres. There is also evidence to suggest that a submerged island, Calafia, lay between Santa Rosae and the mainland.

Santa Rosae is perhaps best known for having had a population of pygmy mammoth
Pygmy Mammoth
The Pygmy Mammoth or Channel Islands Mammoth is an extinct species of dwarf elephant descended from the Columbian mammoth . A case of island or insular dwarfism, M. exilis was only to tall at the shoulder and weighed about , in contrast to its tall, ancestor.Remains of M...

s (Mammuthus exilis), which became extinct over 12,000 years ago, and for the 13,000-year-old skeleton of Arlington Springs Man, which are the oldest set of human remains yet found in North America.
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