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
Lyell, in his “Second Visit to the United States,” made in 1845 (ed. 2,
vol. 1, p. 348), stated that remains of _Equus_ had been found in the
Brunswick Canal. He referred it to _Equus curvidens_, and stated that
this species had the upper teeth more curved than any living horse.
On page 436 of Bulletin No. 26 of the Geological Survey of Georgia, J.
W. Gidley furnished a list of vertebrates dredged up somewhere near
Brunswick. Among the species are 3 horses, _Equus fraternus_ (=_E.
leidyi_), _E. complicatus_, and _E. tau_ (probably _E. littoralis_).
Through the liberality of Professor S. W. McCallie, State Geologist of
Georgia, the writer has been permitted to study these teeth. There is
one damaged upper molar which belongs to _E. complicatus_; 4 upper and 1
lower grinders belong to _E. leidyi_; 2 upper left molars are certainly
those of _E. littoralis_; one having a height of 72 mm., a crown-length
of 23 mm., and a width of 22 mm. The length is slightly greater than
that of the type of the species.
In the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia the
writer has examined an equine tibia presented by J. H. Couper, probably
found in the Brunswick Canal with the other remains presented by Mr.
Couper. It is compared in size with a tibia of the horse Edwin Forrest,
with that of a draft horse in the U. S. National Museum, and with that
of _E. scotti_, No. 10628, in the American Museum of Natural History.
_Measurements of tibiæ of horses, in millimeters._
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┐
│ │Brunswick│ Edwin │ Draft │ E. │
│ │ horse. │Forrest. │ horse. │ scotti. │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┤
│Total length of tibia │ 455│ 365│ 420│ 370│
│Side-to-side diameter at │ 65│ 42│ 50│ 49│
│ middle of length │ │ │ │ │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────┘
The Brunswick horse was evidently a very large one, but it may have been
an unusually large specimen of _Equus complicatus_.
2. _Skidaway Island, near Savannah, Chatham County._—On page 27 of
William B. Hodgson’s “Memoir on the Megatherium,” in Joseph Habersham’s
memorandum, is noted the fact that among the fossils found here was a
well-preserved tooth of a horse. The height of the tooth is given as
being 2.75 inches, greatest diameter 1.2 inches, the least 1 inch. The
tooth was evidently an upper premolar or molar. It belonged probably
either to _Equus complicatus_ or _E. leidyi_, but to which is uncertain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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