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
NOTE.—In 1858 (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. VI, p. 303), Dr.
Skilton, of Troy, wrote that a farmer had dug up, in what had been
marshy ground, 17 teeth of a horse. These, Skilton stated, belonged
to _Equus major_. The teeth were greatly decayed. The writer of the
report said that the enamel of the first upper molar, meaning the
anterior of the six grinding teeth, measured 1.9 inches (47.5 mm.);
that of the corresponding lower teeth 2.33 inches (58 mm.). If these
measurements were taken correctly, they indicate a horse much larger
than any yet known, unless it be _Equus giganteus_ of Texas. There
is no evidence that Dr. Skilton had made any serious study of the
dentition of horses and the teeth were probably those of a domestic
horse, or even of some other animal.
In 1884 (Trans. Linn. Soc. N. Y., vol. II, p. 47), Dr. C. Hart
Merriam, in his paper “The Vertebrates of the Adirondack Region,”
stated he had examined several fossil molar teeth of _Equus major_
exhumed at Keenes Station, near the Oswegatchie Ox Bow, in Jefferson
County, New York. He compared them with the corresponding teeth of
an immense dray horse and found them much larger.
Professor G. C. Manse, of St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York,
sent me for examination 4 upper teeth of a horse which must be those
examined by Dr. C. H. Merriam. They are labeled as having been
collected at Gouverneur, a town not far from Keenes Station. After a
careful study of these teeth and comparison with those of the
domestic horse, the writer concludes that they belonged to the
latter. Domestic horses are known to have larger teeth. Professor
Manse has unfortunately been unable to trace the history of the
teeth back to Dr. C. C. Benton, of Ogdensburg, who showed them to
Dr. Merriam.
NEW JERSEY.
(Map 17.)
1. _Swedesboro, Gloucester County._—In 1868 (Cook’s Geol. New Jersey, p.
741), Cope stated that _Equus complicatus_ was represented in New Jersey
by a series of teeth obtained while a mill-dam at Swedesboro was being
cleared. No further information has been secured. At the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the writer has seen a horse-tooth
labeled as coming from the town named; but whether or not it is one of
those referred to by Cope it is impossible to say.
2. _Fish House, Camden, Camden County._—In 1869 (Trans. Amer. Philos.
Soc., vol. XIV, p. 250, fig. 55), Cope wrote that a partial skull of
_Equus fraternus_ had been found at Fish House in a blackish clay at a
depth of 20 feet from the top of the clay. Over the clay was imposed a
bed of sand from 8 to 15 feet thick. This important skull appears to
have been lost (fig. 7).
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