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The Bird Spring Shelf in southeastern California, along with coeval turbidite basins to the west, records a complex history of Pennsylvanian and Early Permian sedimentation, sea-level changes, and deformation along this part of the western North American continental margin. In this work we describe and figure the fusulinids, including several new species, and establish detailed correlations between deposits of the shelf and the flanking basins. We then use these correlations to reconstruct the depositional history, paleogeography, and deformational history of the region. This work adds significant detail to existing interpretations of the late Paleozoic as a time of major tectonic instability on the continental margin of southeastern California as it changed from a relatively passive margin, which had persisted through most of the Paleozoic, to an active convergent margin that would characterize the Mesozoic.