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
1. _Belding, Ionia County._—So far as the writer knows, no species of
peccary has been found in the State of Michigan, except at Belding. The
remains are in the palæontological collection of the University of
Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and belong to the species _Platygonus
compressus_ Le Conte. The remains are said to consist of bones of 5
individuals; and Mr. N. A. Wood, preparator at the university, informed
the writer there are 294 bones. The skull of one of the 5 individuals
was missing when the collection was made. The skeletons were found in a
peat-swamp, in 1877, and were sent to Professor Alexander Winchell by
Mr. A. Tuttle. A skull belonging to this collection was described in
1903 (Jour. Geology, vol. XI, p. 777, figs. 1–4) by Mr. George Wagner.
It seems probable that there, as in two or three other known cases, a
herd of these animals, asleep together, had succumbed to rigorous
weather, probably to a winter blizzard.
Belding is situated on Flat River, a tributary of Grand River. It lies
close to a part of the Charlotte moraine system, thought to be
correlated with the Valparaiso system. These peccaries could not have
lived in that region until after the Wisconsin ice had retired into Lake
Michigan, or nearly so. It is more probable that they lived there long
after this retirement, at a time when the climate had become much
warmer.
INDIANA.
(Map 36.)
1. _Gibson County._—The type specimen of _Mylohyus nasutus_ was found
somewhere in this county. The specimen was first mentioned by Leidy in
1860 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 416), but without other
designation than peccary. Leidy wrote that it had been sent to him by
Dr. David D. Owen, who informed him that it had been discovered in
Gibson County, in digging a well, at a depth of between 30 and 40 feet.
No more exact locality has ever been determined. The specimen consisted
of the front of the skull only. It was later described by Leidy (Proc.
same Academy, 1868, p. 230), under the name _Dicotyles nasutus_; and in
1869 (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. VII, p. 385, plate XXVIII,
figs. 1, 2) was further described and illustrated. The figures referred
to have been reproduced by the present writer in 1912 (Geol. Surv.
Indiana, vol. XXXIII, p. 607, text-figs. 42, 43), and again in 1914
(Iowa Geol. Surv., vol. XXIII, plate XXVI, figs. 1, 2).
It is unfortunate that Owen and Leidy did not more accurately establish
the locality where this jaw was found. In Gibson County there is a
considerable variety of geological deposits, even considering only those
belonging to the Pleistocene and Recent. The eastern and the
southeastern portion lies outside the drift-covered region. A strip
along the Wabash is occupied by alluvial deposits belonging to the
Recent epoch. Outside of this is another strip covered mostly by
Illinoian drift.
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