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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1974 Pleistocene Sediment and Vertebrate Fossil Associations in the Mississippi Black Belt: a Genetic Approach. John Morgan Kaye Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Kaye, John Morgan, "Pleistocene Sediment and Vertebrate Fossil Associations in the Mississippi Black Belt: a Genetic Approach." (1974). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2612. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2612 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Rosd Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 74- 24,781 KAYE, John Morgan, 1921- PLEISTOCENE SEDIMENT AND VERTEBRATE FOSSIL ASSOCIATIONS IN THE MISSISSIPPI BLACK BELT: A GENETIC APPROACH. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1974 Geology University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. PLEISTOCENE SEDIMENT AND VERTEBRATE FOSSIL ASSOCIATIONS IN THE MISSISSIPPI BLACK BELT: A GENETIC APPROACH A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Geology by John Morgan Kaye B.A., Vanderbilt University, 1947 M.S., Mississippi State University, 1955 May, 1974 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Thanks are extended to the following present and recent faculty members of Louisiana State University: Drs. B. F. Perkins, H. V. Andersen, C. 0. Durham, D. R. Lowe, S. M. Gagliano, and R. H. Kesel for their constructive criticism of the manuscript. Dr. Lowe's sug­ gestions were especially helpful in organization of the material. Drs. Durham, Andersen, and Kesel visited my study area as did Dr. Homer Aschmann, a faculty member of the University of California at Riverside and a visiting professor at Louisiana State University. Thanks are also extended to numerous vertebrate paleontologists, zoologists, and several museums for their aid in the identification of Black Belt Pleistocene vertebrates and for the use of comparative material: Drs. Thomas H. Patton, S. David Webb, and graduate assistant Gene Klein of the Florida State Museum; Drs. Pierce Brodkorb and Walter Auffenberg of the University of Florida Zoology Department; Morris F. Skinner, Beryl E. Taylor, Karl Koopman, and Dr. Richard Tedford of the American Museum of Natural History; Drs. Frank C. Whitmore, Jr. and Clayton E. Ray and researchers Daryl P. Dooming and Bob Purvis at the National Museum; Drs. Bryan Patterson, Farish A. Jenkins, and Elaine Anderson of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University; Richard S. White, formerly at the Museum of the Academy of Natural Science in Philadelphia and now at the American Museum of Natural History; Dr. Ernest L. Lundelius, Jr. of the University of Texas at ii Austin; Dr. Bob H. Slaughter of Southern Methodist University; and Drs. J. A. Jackson and J. L. Wolfe of the Mississippi State University Zoology Department. Special thanks are extended to Dr. C. 6. Jackson, professor of Zoology at Mississippi State College for Women and editor of Herpetologica. for fossil turtle identification and his enthusiastic encouragement and to Daryl P. Domning, author of A List. Bibliography. and Index of the Fossil Vertebrates of Louisiana and Mississippi, for accompanying me on several field trips and aiding in identification of fossil finds. I am also grateful to Dr. Dale Russell, vertebrate paleontologist at the National Museum of Canada, who joined me on a field trip in the Black Belt and encouraged this project and to Drs. F. Wayne Grimm and A. H. Clarke, malacologists at this museum, who identified Pleistocene molluscs. Although my Black Belt samples contained no identifiable pollen grains, I am indebted to Dr. H. E. Wright of the Limnological Research Center at the University of Minnesota and Dr. William A. Watts of the Botany Department of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland for their pollen analysis. Appreciation is extended to my colleagues at Mississippi State University for their comments during this research project: Drs. T. J. Laswell, E. E. Russell, K. A. Riggs, D. M. Ready, and T. W. Lins. Also thanks are due to several of my students and personal friends who have assisted in fossil collecting. Drs. H. B. Vanderford, Rollin C. Glenn, and B. J. Stojanovic in the Agronomy Department at Mississippi State University have been helpful in their consultations and laboratory assistance in regard to Black Belt soils. iii I appreciate the cooperation and technical assistance during the preparation of this manuscript of Mrs. Judy Ardoin, cartographer, Don Nugent, photographer, and Mrs. Mary Mevers, typist. Above all, I want to thank my wife, Harryette, for her clerical assistance and encouragement without which this dissertation would not have been completed. iv CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT................................... ii LIST OF TABLES..................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES ........................ viii ABSTRACT............................................................ x INTRODUCTION....................................................... 1 THE BLACK BELT OF MISSISSIPPI ................................... 3 Location and Definition........................................ 3 Physiography and Drainage...................................... 3 Regional Bedrock Geology ...................................... 10 Vegetation, Accessibility, Culture ........................... 16 PLEISTOCENE-RECENT DEPOSITS OF THE BLACK BE L T ................... 20 Review of Earlier Studies...................................... 20 A l l u v i u m ....................................................... 24 Terraces and Terrace Deposits................................. 26 High (?)Pleistocene Deposits ...................... 27 Age Determinations............................................ 31 PLEISTOCENE VERTEBRATES OF THE BLACK BELT ...................... 34 Review of Pleistocene Vertebrates of Mississippi ........... 34 Fossils Found by the Author in the Black Belt............... 35 Classification and Discussion................................. 36 PLEISTOCENE "GRAVELS" OF THE BLACK B E L T ........................ 71 Metaquartzite................................................... 72 v Page Chert........................................ ................... 77 Directions of Transport........................................ 78 Primary Sources and Explanations for Compositional Sorting . 86 ORIGINS OF THE METAQUARTZITE-VERTEBRATE ASSOCIATION ............ 94 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................... 98 LITERATURE CITED................................................... 99 APPENDICES......................................................... 102 VITA................................................................ 116 vi LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 1. Post-Cretaceous Vertebrate Fossils Found in the Black Belt of Mississippi................................. 37 2. Fossil Assemblages in the Black Belt of Mississippi. 58 3. Ranges of Quaternary Mammal Genera Found in the Black Belt of Mississippi................................

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