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. _Bigbone Lick, Boone County._—In 1831, Dr. Richard Harlan (Monthly
Amer. Jour. Geol., vol. I, p. 77, plate III, figs. 1 to 3) described a
left ramus of the lower jaw of a ground-sloth which had been brought to
New York. This jaw he referred to his _Megalonyx laqueatus_ (_M.
jeffersonii_); but it was later shown by Owen (Zool. Beagle, 1840, p.
68) to belong to _Mylodon_, and he named it _M. harlani_ in honor of Dr.
Harlan. From Cooper (Monthly Amer. Jour. Geol., vol. I, p. 172) it is
learned that this bone had formed part of the Finnell collection at
Cincinnati. So far as the present writer sees, there was nothing in
Harlan’s article to show where the jaw was discovered. In 1855
(Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. VII, p. 47, plate XIV, figs. 1, 2),
Leidy further described and illustrated the specimen and stated that it
was found at Bigbone Lick. In 1903, Barnum Brown (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat.
Hist., vol. XIX, p. 511) stated that Harlan’s specimen ought to be in
Columbia University, but it could not be found. It is more probable that
it was destroyed in a fire in the old American Museum of Natural
History.
In his report on Bigbone Lick (op. cit., p. 171), Cooper stated that he
had seen in the “Western Museum,” Cincinnati, a large humerus of a
megalonyx. Cooper further wrote that he and a companion had found at the
lick a metacarpal bone which he supposed belonged to the same animal.
The humerus was described and figured by Harlan (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci.,
Phila., ser. 1, vol. VI, p. 277, plate XIII, fig. 10). Cooper (op. cit.,
p. 172) mentions other bones of _Megalonyx_ found at Bigbone Lick, but
some may have belonged to _Mylodon_. This is the case with the fragment
of lower jaw with 4 teeth which became the type of _Mylodon harlani_, as
above mentioned. In Princeton University there is an ungual phalanx 167
mm. long, 66 mm. high, and 43 mm. thick at the middle of the height.
This is labeled as having been found at Bigbone Lick. A list of the
species discovered at this place will be found on page 403.
2. _Bluelick Springs, Nicholas County._—In the collection made by Mr.
Thomas W. Hunter, in the sulphur spring at the place mentioned, the
writer has seen two ungual phalanges which were identified as those of
_Megalonyx jeffersonii_.
3. _Henderson, Henderson County._—A considerable part of a skeleton of
_Megalonyx jeffersonii_ was found at different times extending through
some years, about 5 or 6 miles below Henderson, in the bank of Ohio
River. This skeleton is now in the University of Indiana and was
described by Leidy in 1855 (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. VII, art.
3). This collection furnished a fine skull and lower jaw. In the same
deposits were found many horns and bones of deer. The geology of the
locality and the age of the bones will be discussed on page 405.
FINDS OF PLEISTOCENE MASTODONS IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA.
ONTARIO.
(Map 5.)
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