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
It is necessary to determine, if possible, where the boundary line shall
be drawn between the Pliocene and the Pleistocene. Room must be made for
the first interglacial, the Nebraskan, and its fauna. How long this
first glacial stage continued we do not know. Chamberlin and Salisbury
have indicated (Geology, vol. III, p. 420) that in a rough way the dates
from the present of the culmination of the various glacial stages,
except the Nebraskan, taken in order backward, may be represented by the
geometrical series 1, 2, 4, 8, 16. That is, if the Illinoian stage had
its culmination 150,000 years ago, that of the Kansan occurred 300,000
years ago; if the Nebraskan should fall in the same series, it
culminated 600,000 years ago; and it and the succeeding Aftonian
interglacial held sway as long as all the rest of the Pleistocene put
together. It would be rash to assert that this first glacial did last so
long; but we see the possibilities. In a personal communication
Professor Frank Leverett writes that he estimates that the Kansan
culmination took place at not less than 400,000 years ago and the
Nebraskan at 500,000. This, as the present writer estimates, would leave
for the Nebraskan itself somewhere near 40,000 or 50,000 years. Some
changes in the life of the Pleistocene must have been wrought during
those years.
The glacial deposits of the Nebraskan stage are not as well known as one
might wish. They appear to be in general overlain by the later drifts
and are observed mostly where streams have cut through both the
overlying drift and the Nebraskan. The old drift found in New Jersey is
thin and of no great extent. Moreover, we can hardly expect to find
fossil vertebrates in the drift itself. We must therefore depend on
studies of supposed Nebraskan fossils found mostly outside of the
glaciated area and make comparison of them with earlier and later
faunas. If we shall discover collections of Nebraskan vertebrate
animals, we may be sure that they will differ from those of the first
interglacial, the Aftonian. We may be pretty certain that they will
include autochthonous genera of the late Tertiary, which may be missing
from the Aftonian, together with at least a few genera from South
America and others from Asia.
Now, have any formations and included fossil vertebrates been found
which may be fitted into the Nebraskan interval?
In this stage the writer places the beds which Cope designated the Idaho
formation (Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1883, p. 135). Since
Cope’s time several new species have been added to his list from this
formation. In 1917 (Bull. Dept. Geol. Univ. Calif., vol. X, p. 432), Dr.
J. C. Merriam published a list of the fossils, except fishes, which had
been secured up to that time. The list of species referred to the Idaho
formation is as follows:
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