GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY OF THE LOWER MIOCENE POLLACK FARM FOSSIL SITE DELAWARE

RICHARD N. BENSON, Editor

Delaware Geological Survey • Special Publication No. 21 • University of Delaware • 1998 GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY OF THE LOWER MIOCENE POLLACK FARM FOSSIL SITE DELAWARE

RICHARD N. BENSON, Editor

RESEARCH DELAWARE

SERVICEGEOLOGICAL SURVEY

EXPLORATION

DELAWARE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY • SPECIAL PUBLICATION NO. 21 State of Delaware • University of Delaware 1998 CONTENTS

Page INTRODUCTION...... 1 Richard N. Benson

GEOLOGY

RADIOLARIANS AND DIATOMS FROM THE POLLACK FARM SITE, DELAWARE: MARINEÐTERRESTRIAL CORRELATION OF MIOCENE VERTEBRATE ASSEMBLAGES OF THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC COASTAL PLAIN ...... 5 Richard N. Benson

AGE OF MARINE MOLLUSKS FROM THE LOWER MIOCENE POLLACK FARM SITE, DELAWARE, DETERMINED BY 87SR/86SR GEOCHRONOLOGY ...... 21 Douglas S. Jones, Lauck W. Ward, Paul A. Mueller, and David A. Hodell

DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS AND STRATIGRAPHY OF THE POLLACK FARM SITE, DELAWARE ...... 27 Kelvin W. Ramsey

OPHIOMORPHA NODOSA IN ESTUARINE SANDS OF THE LOWER MIOCENE CALVERT FORMATION AT THE POLLACK FARM SITE, DELAWARE ...... 41 Molly F. Miller, H. Allen Curran, and Ronald L. Martino

ANALYSIS OF DEFORMATION FEATURES AT THE POLLACK FARM SITE, DELAWARE ...... 47 A. Scott Andres and C. Scott Howard

PALEONTOLOGY

PALYNOMORPHS FROM THE LOWER MIOCENE POLLACK FARM SITE, DELAWARE ...... 55 Johan J. Groot

MOLLUSKS FROM THE LOWER MIOCENE POLLACK FARM SITE, KENT COUNTY, DELAWARE: A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS ...... 59 Lauck W. Ward

THE EARLY MIOCENE FISH FAUNA FROM THE POLLACK FARM SITE, DELAWARE...... 133 Robert W. Purdy

REPTILES OF THE LOWER MIOCENE (HEMINGFORDIAN) POLLACK FARM FOSSIL SITE, DELAWARE ...... 141 J. Alan Holman

EARLY MIOCENE AVIFAUNA FROM THE POLLACK FARM SITE, DELAWARE ...... 149 Pamela C. Rasmussen

THE EARLY HEMINGFORDIAN (EARLY MIOCENE) POLLACK FARM LOCAL FAUNA: FIRST TERTIARY LAND MAMMALS DESCRIBED FROM DELAWARE ...... 153 Robert J. Emry and Ralph E. Eshelman

A NOTE ON THE TAPHONOMY OF LOWER MIOCENE FOSSIL LAND MAMMALS FROM THE MARINE CALVERT FORMATION AT THE POLLACK FARM SITE, DELAWARE ...... 175 Alan H. Cutler

FOSSIL MARINE MAMMALS OF THE LOWER MIOCENE POLLACK FARM SITE, DELAWARE ...... 179 David J. Bohaska

THE COVER Aerial view of the Pollack Farm Site viewed toward the east in 1992. The Leipsic River is in the upper left. Right-of-way for Delaware State Route 1 runs from left to right in foreground. Photograph by Tim O’Brian.

Johan J. Groot reports that palynomorphs from the mammals is early Hemingfordian (early Miocene). The Pollack Farm Site indicate an early Miocene climate similar assemblage, termed the Pollack Farm Local Fauna, includes to one that now prevails in the coastal region of Georgia or at least 26 species representing at least 17 families in 7 northern Florida. The diversity and abundance of the paly- orders. Families represented include shrew, hedgehog, bat, noflora representing trees and shrubs and the near absence of beaver, mice and other rodents, ancestral bear(?), racoon, herbaceous pollen indicate a dense forest growing right up to dog, horse, chalicothere, rhinoceros, peccary, hippopotamus- the coast. Marine palynomorphs decrease stratigraphically like artiodactyl(?), oreodont, and deer-like ruminant. The upward indicating a slight regression or a change from an land mammal assemblage suggests a nearby forested habitat, open marine to an estuarine environment. probably with some open grassy areas, and fresh water. Lauck W. Ward describes a prolific, well-preserved Possible settings are a coastal barrier island or a delta with invertebrate fossil assemblage, principally of mollusks, that flowing fresh-water rivers and streams, oxbow lakes and is the equivalent of that collected from the Kirkwood ponds, with marshes and swamps developed in the lowlands Formation near Shiloh, New Jersey. The molluscan assem- and forest and open park-like grasslands on the higher eleva- blage is analyzed, and 104 species are discussed and/or fig- tions. Beaver, peccaries, browsing and grazing horses, chali- ured. The mollusks appear to have originated in a deltaic set- cotheres and rhinos could all find suitable habitats in such ting where fresh-water, brackish-water, and marine mollusks places. have been mixed and rapidly deposited in a channel. The Alan H. Cutler’s observations of the surface features of assemblage consists of a number of new species, first occur- terrestrial mammal bones suggest that the bones were rences, last occurrences, subtropical and tropical species, exposed subaerially for a period of time before burial and and taxa not previously reported from North America. that they were buried and permineralized prior to transport From the lower shell bed Robert W. Purdy identifies 30 and abrasion. Carcasses washed to sea by flooded rivers is fossil fish taxa comprising 24 cartilaginous and 6 bony fish- therefore unlikely, and reworking is the favored model of es. Except for the relative abundances of the taxa, the assem- assemblage formation. blage is identical to those of equivalent age from the Calvert David J. Bohaska reports that the marine mammal col- and Pungo River formations of Maryland and North lection from the Pollack Farm Site is more fragmentary and Carolina, respectively, and indicates a subtropical, shallow- less diverse than the marine mammal fauna from the Calvert water, nearshore paleoenvironment with a water temperature Formation of Maryland and Virginia, lacking the more near- warmer than that found in the Carolina Bight today. ly complete skulls and skeletons found there. At least six J. Alan Holman reports a unique reptile fauna from the cetaceans are present—five porpoises and a sperm whale. Pollack Farm Fossil Site that, among other species, has Also present is a dugong, and one of the earliest records of a yielded the first North American remains of small Miocene true seal. The long-beaked porpoise Zarhachis flagellator lizards and snakes east of the Great Plains and north of suggests a non-open ocean habitat as it has a body plan Florida, including Pollackophis depressus, a distinctive new resembling modern river porpoises. A dead river-dwelling genus and species of small colubrid snake, and Pterygoboa porpoise could easily float downstream into the marine envi- delawarensis, a new species of a distinctive small boid ronment and be preserved. Sirenians (dugong) tend to occur genus. Also identified are aquatic turtles, a very large tor- in fresh and near-shore marine waters and are generally trop- toise, and a very large crocodile. Large reptiles such as giant ical to subtropical in distribution. tortoises and crocodilians indicate that the climate in The authors of the studies of the sediments and fossils Delaware during deposition of the Pollack Farm sediments from the Pollack Farm Site presented in this volume are was probably subtropical. The terrestrial reptile assemblage remarkably consistent in their age determinations and paleoen- suggests a group of forms that probably occupied a rather vironmental interpretations. The age is well-established as early open grassy or brushy habitat with loose or sandy soil. This Miocene, about 18 Ma, as corroborated by the radiolarian, mol- habitat was probably near a large sluggish lake or oxbow as luscan, and strontium isotope studies, and early Hemingfordian crocodiles normally need large, permanent bodies of water in as determined by the land mammal assemblage. which to live. The bulk of the invertebrate and vertebrate macrofos- Only 11 specimens of fossil birds, all fragmentary and sils, ranging from terrestrial to fully marine taxa, are from a unassociated, have been recovered from the Pollack Farm channel deposit, therefore, transported from where they Fossil Site. The five avian taxa Pamela C. Rasmussen identi- lived. The terrestrial mammal assemblage consists of disas- fied are mostly or exclusively marine in distribution—mod- sociated elements. Articulated bones were probably buried ern loons and sulids, the two most common taxa at the site, and permineralized before they were transported and abrad- and pseudodontorns which were strictly marine. The fossils ed. The abraded condition of the marine mammal bones apparently all belong to species already known from the resembles that of the terrestrial mammals. younger part of the Calvert Formation of the western shore The likely depositional setting for the sands at the site of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. The composition of the avi- was a tide-dominated delta with shallow open marine waters fauna supports the depositional hypothesis of a nearshore nearby as indicated by the radiolarian bed at the site. area of a large embayment. Depositional environments at the site include marine inner The land mammals from the Pollack Farm Site are rep- shelf, subtidal to tidal channels with Ophiomorpha burrows, resented predominantly by single teeth and parts of postcra- and tidal flats. Both the land climate and marine environment nial elements. Robert J. Emry and Ralph E. Eshelman write were subtropical. Densely forested uplands with open areas that the collection of fossils grew to become the most diverse of grasslands grew right up to the coast. Lowland environ- Tertiary land mammal fauna known in eastern North ments consisted of fresh-water rivers and streams with America north of Florida. The age established by the land swamps, marshes, and large lakes on the floodplain. 2 Acknowledgments Gordon Simonson, supervisor at the Pollack Farm Site for Pierson Engineering, is acknowledged by all authors who collected fossils at the site. He personally found many of the specimens, encouraged his fellow workers at the site to donate or loan fossils they collected for study by contributors to this volume, and even operated a backhoe to dig out fresh material for collecting. Simonson, David Duke of the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT), and Edward S. Adams of Century Engineering were cooperative in granting access to the site. Kevin W. Cunningham, DelDOT Archaeologist, was enthusiastic about the plans for this volume and was instrumental in arranging financial sup- port by DelDOT for its publication. Finally, I express my sin- cere appreciation to the authors contributing to this volume and the reviewers of their manuscripts. All were cooperative in responding to my schedule for producing this volume after I became its editor.

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