Paleolatitudes determined from plaeomagnetic study of azimuthally unoriented sediment cores recovered by deep sea drilling on the Pacific plate have been previously used in determining reference poles for the Pacific plate apparent polar wander (APW) path. From discordant paleoinclinations and corresponding paleolatitudes determined from these data, some workers have inferred tectonic tilting or large horizontal motion of some seep-sea drilling sites relative to other parts of the Pacific plate. Here the reliability of these paleolatitudes is evaluated by comparing them with paleolatitudes determined from a Pacific plate reference APW path determined from seamount poles, skewness and amplitudes of magnetic profiles across magnetically lineated seafloor, and paleocolatitudes from azimuthally unoriented basalt cores and from equatorial sediment facies. The reference APW path includes a new determination of the Early Cretaceous pole from several types of paleomagnetic data, which agree well with one another. Sediment paleolatitudes are found to be systematically less southerly than those predicted from the reference APW path, a discrepancy that corresponds to inclinations shallower than expected. Thus most deep-sea drilling sediment paleomagnetic paleolatitudes are unreliable and should be omitted from the data used in determining reference APW paths. Inclination and paleolatitude discrepancies noted in prior studies may be due not to tectonic causes but to shallowly biased inclinations. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1990