The Pleistocene of North America: and its vertebrated animals from the states east of the Mississippi River and from the Canadian provinces east of longitude 95°Hay, Oliver Perry
Science
The Pleistocene of North America: and its vertebrated animals from the states east of the Mississippi River and from the Canadian provinces east of longitude 95°
Hay, Oliver Perry
Paleontology -- North America; Paleontology -- Pleistocene; Vertebrates, Fossil
1. _Brunswick, Glynn County._—In Richard Harlan’s list (Proc. Acad. Nat.
Sci., vol. I, 1841–43, p. 189) of fossil vertebrates which had been
exhumed in making the Brunswick Canal were mentioned teeth of _Mastodon
giganteum_ (=_Mammut americanum_). About this time J. H. Couper (Proc.
Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. IV, p. 33) read a paper in which he mentioned the
occurrence of the same species in the canal referred to. Lyell (Second
Visit, etc., p. 348) included the mastodon among the species discovered
here. Richard Owen (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1846, p. 93) reported
the result of an examination of a collection submitted to him through
Lyell. Hippopotamus had been recognized in a supposed incisor; but Owen
showed that it was a small tusk of a proboscidean, probably of _Mammut
americanum_. Leidy (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. VII, p. 248)
stated that he had examined in the collection of the Academy the hinder
part of a tooth of the American mastodon.
Gidley (Bull. 26, Geol. Surv. Georgia, p. 436) recognized _Gomphotherium
floridanum_ and _Mammut americanum_ in a collection which had been made
some years ago at Brunswick, probably in dredging in the harbor.
Inasmuch as only fragments of these teeth were present, the
identification was difficult. The writer has, through the kindness of
Professor S. W. McCallie, had the opportunity to examine these
fragments. They appear all to belong to _Gomphotherium rugosidens_, a
species rather common in that region. This species probably does not
belong to the Pleistocene, but to the upper Miocene or the Lower
Pliocene. It is possible, however, that it belongs to the lowermost
Pleistocene, the Nebraskan.
2. _Skidaway Island, near Savannah, Chatham County._—Remains of _Mammut
americanum_ have been found at two places in Chatham County, Heyner’s
Bridge and Skidaway Island. Lyell (Travels in N. A., 1845, vol. I, p.
163) records his visit to Heyner’s Bridge, on White Bluff Creek, about 7
miles south of Savannah. In Hodgson’s memoir this locality is said to be
on Vernon Creek (map 40). Lyell had learned from Dr. Habersham that
bones of mastodons and other extinct mammals had already been found
there. Lyell himself secured a grinder of a mastodon. It was found in a
bed of clay about 6 feet thick exposed only at low water. The tooth
referred to may be the one mentioned by Lydekker (Cat. Foss. Mamm. Brit.
Mus., pt. IV, p. 23). Hodgson (“Memoir on Megatherium,” p. 12) reported
the discovery of mastodon remains at this place, specifying a section of
a tusk 3.25 feet long and nearly 11 inches in circumference; also a
femur, which was sent to Paris. Reference is made to the mastodon
remains on page 42 of the memoir mentioned. For the geology of this
locality and a list of the species found there the reader is referred to
page 371.
FLORIDA.
(Maps 5, 10.)
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