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
Under this number may be recorded the finding of a part of a lower molar
of a young mastodon near Nashville, sent to the writer for examination
by Mr. W. E. Myer, of Nashville, in 1920. It had been found in the north
bank of Cumberland River, about 300 yards upstream from Lock A, in a bed
of sand beneath nearly 30 feet of gravel. With it were found a calcaneum
of a camel and some fragments of a shell of a turtle. In a thin bed of
gravel just below this were discovered a tooth of _Equus leidyi_, a
femur of a probably larger horse, and an antler of a small probably
undescribed deer. Apparently these fossil-bearing deposits belong
somewhere near the Aftonian interglacial stage. Remarks on the geology
of this locality will be found on page 399.
7. _Williamson County, 11 miles Southeast of Nashville._—The geologist
Troost (vol. cit., p. 139) recorded the finding of mastodon bones and
teeth in the region noted. The locality was said to be about 0.5 mile
from Liberty meeting-house. It must be in the extreme northeastern
corner of Williamson County. In another spot not far away were found a
tusk and a part of a tooth.
8. _Fayetteville, Lincoln County._—From Mr. Wilbur A. Nelson, above
mentioned, the writer learned in 1913 that Mr. W. F. Myer, of Carthage,
had dug up, near Fayetteville, about two-thirds of the skeleton of a
mastodon. Nothing more has been learned about this.
9. _Memphis, Shelby County._—In 1850 (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 2, vol. X,
p. 57), Dr. Jeffries Wyman reported that teeth of a mastodon had been
found somewhere about Memphis. They were supposed to have been obtained
from the diluvium of Mississippi River, and were found associated with
_Castoroides_, _Castor_, and _Megalonyx_.
KENTUCKY.
(Map 5.)
1. _Ludlow, Kenton County._—In the Sunday Star of Washington, D. C., for
January 3, 1919, there appeared a reproduction of a photograph of a
tusk, believed to belong to a mastodon, which had been found at Ludlow,
opposite the lower end of Cincinnati. It was unearthed by the steam
shovel in the course of excavating for the Southern Railroad, at a depth
of 35 feet, in a gravel bank. It is reported to have a length of 6 feet
10 inches and a diameter of 7 inches. A part of the distal end is
missing. According to the photograph, the tusk forms somewhat more than
half the circumference of a circle whose radius is about 23.5 inches.
The curvature and the thickness, as compared with the length, appear to
indicate that it belonged to a mastodon, but the identity is not
certain.
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