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
The width of the grinding-surface is 110 mm. There are 5
plates in a 100–mm. line. The plates are not curved. The enamel is thick
and festooned.
FINDS OF ELEPHANTS OF UNDETERMINED SPECIES IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA.
The rather numerous specimens of elephants here described are those
whose specific identity can not at present be determined. Often the
discovery of elephant remains, especially of teeth, has been reported
without any attempt at description or identification; or they may have
been referred to _Elephas primigenius_ at a time when no specific
distinctions were recognized among our elephants. In probably most cases
the specimens reported have been lost. The great majority of them
belonged either to _Elephas primigenius_ or to _E. columbi_. It has
seemed worth while to keep record of these unidentified specimens; for
equally with the others they show the presence of Pleistocene deposits.
UNGAVA.
1. _Long Island, James Bay._—In 1898 (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. IX,
p. 371, fig. 1), Robert Bell reported the discovery of an elephant tooth
on Long Island, identified by Boyd Dawkins as that of _Elephas columbi_;
by Cope as probably a variety intermediate between _E. columbi_ and _E.
primigenius_. No measurements were given by Bell, and the tooth was
figured obliquely, so its proportions can hardly be determined. Cope
regarded it as a hindermost molar, but it appears to be a last milk
molar or a first true molar. It is remarkable for the great thickness of
the cement between the enamel plates.
The tooth was reported found on the naked rock of an island nearly bare
of soil. It might be supposed that a tooth thus exposed would soon have
been destroyed by weathering. Lucas (Geol. Surv. Maryland, Pleistocene
vol., p. 151) expressed the opinion that it had been carried there by
water or ice. One might suppose it had been brought to the island by
human agency. Of its geological age nothing can be said, except that it
is Pleistocene. This locality is not marked on the map of elephants of
undetermined species, as it lies somewhat too far north.
ONTARIO.
(Map 16.)
1. _St. Catharines, Lincoln County._—In 1866 (Cat. Casts Foss., p. 37,
fig.), Henry A. Ward represented a cast of an elephant tooth which
appears to be the lower right hindermost molar. The original is stated
to have been found at St. Catharines and to be in a museum at Niagara.
It is possible that this is the tooth described on another page as
_Elephas columbi_ and now in the Victoria Museum at Toronto; but, while
Ward’s figure represents the greater length of the tooth as worn, in the
other tooth only 6 plates are worn. It is possible that the figure is
incorrectly drawn.
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