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. _Alton, Madison County._—The U. S. National Museum contains a
fragment of a molar of apparently _Megalonyx jeffersonii_, from a
collection made long ago by William McAdams, at Alton, Illinois. It has
on it McAdams’s number 21. This collection, which was long in the hands
of Professor O. C. Marsh, as vertebrate palæontologist of the U. S.
Geological Survey, is said to have been made in the loess at Alton. Most
of the teeth, with occasional bones, are inclosed in nodules of
extremely fine sand and carbonate of calcium so hard that the teeth can
not be removed without injury. They have been, however, partly exposed
by weathering. The nodules which contained the fossils were found
between the loess and the underlying Illinoian drift.
The fragment of a megalonyx tooth has the diameters respectively 16 mm.
and 24 mm. It is thinner fore-and-aft than other specimens, but this may
be an individual variation.
It is believed that this loess belongs to the Sangamon interglacial
stage. The geology of the locality and the species found there are
discussed on page 339. Also, the fossils were described by the writer in
1920 (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. LVIII, pp. 109–117). The presence of
this sloth-like beast appears to indicate that the climate was at that
time mild.
3. _Galena, Jo Daviess County._—In 1870 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila.,
1870, p. 13), Dr. Leidy brought to the notice of the Academy the fossil
remains of two species of much interest. These had been presented to the
Academy by Henry Green, of Elizabeth, Jo Daviess County, and were
reported as having been found in a narrow crevice of the lead-bearing
rocks in the vicinity of Galena, at a depth of 130 feet. One fossil was
a metacarpal bone of _Megalonyx jeffersonii_, the other was identified
as a last lower molar of _Bison antiquus_. Leidy mentioned three other
species, _Platygonus compressus_, _Procyon priscus_, and _Anomodon
snyderi_ as having been found about Galena in similar situations. The
geological age of the Vertebrata found in the lead crevices about Galena
has not been well determined, but the present writer has regarded them
as being probably of late Wisconsin time. The _Bison_ tooth may have
been that of the yet existing species. However, the possibility is that
these fossils are pre-Wisconsin.
VIRGINIA.
(Map 3.)
1. _Saltville, Smyth County._—Mr. O. A. Peterson, in 1917 (Ann. Carnegie
Mus., vol. XI, p. 472, figs. 4, 5), reported the discovery of the
symphyseal portion of the lower jaw of _Megalonyx_ at Saltville. It was
referred with some doubt to _M. dissimilis_ Leidy. Further mention of
the specimen will be made on page 352.
2. _Ivanhoe, Wythe County._—On a page devoted to the consideration of a
considerable number of species found by Cope near Ivanhoe, in Wythe
County, mention will be made of _Megalonyx jeffersonii_. Only fragments
of teeth were secured by Cope.
WEST VIRGINIA.
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