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. _Port Kennedy, Montgomery County._—In the bone cave at this place
have been found 3 species of peccaries. Cope, in 1899 (Jour. Acad. Nat.
Sci. Phila., ser. 2, vol. II, pp. 259–263) described these under the
names _Mylohyus tetragonus_, _M. pennsylvanicus_, and _M. nasutus_. The
first was a new species, based on a damaged lower jaw with some of the
teeth (op. cit., plate XXI, figs. 3–3b). For the present the writer
refers it to the genus _Tagassu_, inasmuch as the interval between the
canine and the first premolar (pm^2) is only half the length of the
whole tooth row, and the molars have the structure found in _Tagassu_.
Some teeth belonging to an upper jaw were referred with doubt to this
species. They may have belonged to _Mylohyus pennsylvanicus_. Of the
species last named, Cope had fragments of 2 lower jaw’s with some teeth
in them and some teeth free from the jaws. Of _Mylohyus nasutus_, Cope
had from the cave only an upper canine and its reference to this species
is uncertain.
On page 312 will be found a list of the species of vertebrates found in
the Port Kennedy Cave; also remarks on their geological age.
3. _Milroy, Mifflin County._—In 1882, Leidy described (Proc. Acad. Nat.
Sci. Phila., 1882, p. 302) a species of peccary found in a limestone
cave in the county named, but he gave no more exact information; nor did
he do so in his two subsequent references to it in 1889 (Trans. Wagner
Inst., vol. II, p. 49; Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Pennsylvania for 1887, p.
12, plate II, figs. 1, 2). The specimen is in the Academy of Natural
Sciences at Philadelphia. In the Pennsylvania survey, as quoted, the
giver is called John Schwarzer. The name of the species is _Platygonus
vetus_. The writer has been informed by J. C. Swigart, county surveyor
of Mifflin County, that the proper name of the donor of the specimen was
John Swartzell, a former surveyor who lived near Milroy and who was much
interested in geology.
From Professor Mosheim Swartzell, of Washington, D. C., son of John
Swartzell, the writer has received a letter in which are given this
son’s recollections regarding the finding of the specimen in question.
He states that it was discovered in Naginey’s limestone quarry, 1.5
miles south of Milroy. It came from a considerable, but now unknown,
distance from the surface and was first noticed in the débris of the
quarry. While Mr. John Swartzell was observing it, an ignorant workman
struck it with a tool and damaged it, exclaiming that it was only the
jaw of a hog. It was later sent to Philadelphia. Professor Swartzell
writes that there was a cave not far away, but that the jaw was not
found in it; it probably had fallen down into a crevice of the
limestone.
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