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
2. _Elmira, Chemung County._—In the collection of the American Museum of
Natural History in New York is a part of an elephant tooth (Cat. No.
10488) which the writer identifies as belonging to _Elephas columbi_,
and which is recorded as having been found at Elmira. There are only 3
ridge-plates in the fragment. As to the time during the Pleistocene when
this species lived in New York, all that can be said is that it was
during the last half of the Wisconsin stage. No specimens have been
found as close to the glacial lakes preceding Lake Ontario as in the
cases of _Elephas primigenius_, but this may be due to accidents of
preservation or to failures of discovery.
NEW JERSEY.
(Map 12.)
1. _Middletown, Monmouth County._—In 1818 (Cuvier’s “Theory of the
Earth,” p. 384, plate I, figs. 2, 5), S. L. Mitchill referred to a tooth
of an elephant found somewhere about Middletown. In his “Catalogue of
Organic Remains,” 1826, page 10, Mitchill mentioned a singular
boat-shaped tooth of an elephant, found on Bennett’s farm, Middletown,
New Jersey. Both references are to the same tooth; the shape was due to
the wear the tooth had suffered. It was said to come from the region
where the horse remains were obtained. This tooth was a lower right
hindermost molar, much worn. It evidently belonged to _Elephas columbi_.
We have no other information about the specimen. It appears probable
that the deposits which yielded remains of horses and of elephants are
to be referred to an interglacial stage, at least as old as the
Sangamon. The finding of a bone of _Megatherium_ along the New Jersey
coast suggests that the Aftonian may be represented there.
PENNSYLVANIA.
(Map 12.)
1. _Rogersville, Greene County._—The writer has received from Mr. Andrew
Waychoff, of Waynesburg, a small photograph of a lower hindermost molar,
found 3 miles south of Rogersville, in the bed of Hargus Creek. The
tooth was found about 1909 or 1910 and passed into the possession of Mr.
Waychoff; but it had been broken by the finder, who wished to see what
was in it. The tooth has 8 ridge-plates in a 100–mm. line and the form
and arrangement of the plates indicate that it belonged to _Elephas
columbi_. It is impossible to determine, with the knowledge at command,
the stage of the Pleistocene to which this animal is to be assigned.
2. _Pittsburgh, Allegheny County._—In 1910 (Science, n. s., vol. XXXI,
p. 31), an anonymous note stated that there was in Carnegie Museum of
Natural History an enormous tusk, supposed to be of this species, found
in the banks of the Allegheny River, in a suburb of Pittsburgh. There
is, however, no certainty that the tusk was not that of _E. primigenius_
or of _Mammut americanum_. In either case it would be difficult to refer
the animal to any definite Pleistocene stage.
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