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
5. _Beaverdam, Erie County._—In 1828 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XIV, p.
31), Mr. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer described a tooth which must have been
that of _Elephas primigenius_. It had been found near Lake Erie, at a
place called Beaverdam, near a small rivulet, and at a height of 600
feet above the lake. He stated that there were 13 layers of enamel in a
line 4.5 inches long. The tooth was sent to the Lyceum of Natural
History, New York, but was probably destroyed in a fire at the old
American Museum of Natural History.
OHIO.
(Maps 11, 36.)
1. _Waverly, Pike County._—In the U. S. National Museum is an upper
molar of an elephant said to have been found in a gravel-pit of the
Norfolk and Western Railroad, at Waverly. It was sent to the Smithsonian
Institution in 1900 by Mr. E. Sehon, who stated that the tooth had been
picked up along the railroad mentioned, about 30 miles south of Kenova,
West Virginia, but that the gravel had been loaded on the cars at
Waverly. The tooth is believed to be the hindermost milk molar. There
are 10 plates in a line 100 mm. long. The Pleistocene geological
conditions at Waverly may to some extent be learned by consulting
Leverett’s paper forming Monograph XLI of the U. S. Geological Survey,
pages 101–104. There is a possibility that this tooth was buried in
gravels older than the last glacial stage.
2. _Zanesville, Muskingum County._—In 1853 (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 2,
vol. XV, pp. 146–147) is found a brief account of the discovery of
elephant remains at Zanesville. One tusk and four molars were found. Two
of the latter weighed (probably while wet) 20 pounds each and two others
14 pounds each. They had been found on the line of what was then called
the Ohio Central Railroad and in the eastern part of the city. At about
the same time (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. IV, p. 377) Warren
exhibited a tooth of an elephant, one of three received by him from
Zanesville (misprinted Lanesville). In the second edition of his
monograph on “Mastodon giganteus” Warren figured one of these teeth (his
plate XXVIII). It was stated that he had four of the teeth, all
belonging to _Elephas primigenius_. These are now in the American Museum
of Natural History, New York. The right upper hindermost molar is a fine
large tooth. The large front root is missing, as are quite certainly
about 3 plates. There are now 28 present. The length along the nearly
straight base is 335 mm. The rear is high and arched. There are 9 plates
in a 100–mm. line and the enamel is little festooned. Foster, in 1857
(Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 10th meeting, p. 156), described the
discovery and exhumation of these remains, publishing a geological
section illustrated by a figure. The elephant bed is 37 feet above the
river and over 20 feet from the surface. In the collection of the State
University at Columbus (No. 5296) is a fine upper hindermost molar of
_Elephas primigenius_ credited to T. W.
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