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4 + I. 1 ..1 T * - R__r E-~~ 7- «~1~/9.H,~r- - ir- Frt hz {,-:-»~ rr#Ir· rh ""Xprrf *31**~ 1 1=6 -< 11~ - J J_= r Al ./FAM U P.Ati'... of the FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY UNGULATES OF THE TOLEDO BEND LOCAL FAUNA (LATE ARIKAREEAN, EARLY MIOCENE), TEXAS COASTAL PLAIN L. Barry Albright III Volume 42 No. 1 pm 1-80 1999 11,1 , . 34,1·4/3 611 2%51ttlf**,St--1 u 14*-# - ~-*'* UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA GAINESVILLE Numbers of the BULLETIN OF THE FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY are published at irregular intervals. Volumes containtabout,3005pages andrm.not necessarily completed in any one calendar year. JOHNF. EISENBERG, EDITOR RICHARD FRANZ, CO-EDITOR RHODA J. BRYANT, MANAGING ED#OR Communicatibns concerning purchase or exchange of the publications and all manuscripts should be addressed to: Managing Editor, Bulletin; Florida Museum of Natural History; University of Florida; P. O. Box 117800, Gainesville FL 32611-7800; U.S.A. This journal is printed on recycled paper. ISSN: 0071-6154 CODEN: BF 5BA5 Publication date: 8-12-99 Price: $ 7.50 UNGULATES OF THE TOLEDO BEND LOCAL FAUNA (LATE ARIKAREEAN, EARLY MIOCENE), TEXAS COASTAL PLAIN L. Barry Albright IIIl ABSTRACT The Toledo Bend Local Fauna includes the most diverse assemblage of mammals yet reported from the earliest Miocene Gulf Coastal Plain. Faunal affinities with the Buda Local Fauna of northern Florida, as well as with faunas of the northern Great Plains and Oregon, suggest a "medial" to late Arikareean age. Of 26 mammalian taxa represented, the 17 ungulates are discussed in this report; the carnivores, small mammals, and lower vertebrates are discussed elsewhere. All ungulate taxa are browsers rather than grazers, and many have not previously been recorded from the Gulf Coastal Plain. Riparian forms such as anthracotheres and tapirs account for a large percentage of mammalian remains recovered, although horses, rhinoceroses, and a small, new species of protoceratid, Prosynthetoceras orthrionanus sp. nov., are also common. Other ungulates include a small chalicothere, a new small rhinoceros, Gu#ocems wes#alli gen. et sp. nov., and a giant entelodont. The abundance of protoceratids, tapirs, anthracotheres, and rhinoceroses, the absence of oreodonts, and the rarity of camelids at Toledo Bend contrasts with Arikareean faunas in Florida where protoceratids and anthracotheres are absent, tapirs and rhinos are extremely rare, oreodonts are present, and camelids are relatively common. RESUMEN La fauna local de Toledo Bend incluye el ensamble mas diverso de mamiferos jamas reportado para el Mioceno mhs temprano de la Planicie Costera del Golfo, en Texas. Las afinidades faunisticas con la fauna local de Buda, del norte de la Florida y con la de las Grandes Planicies del Norte y de Oregon, sugieren una edad del Arikareano medio a tardio. De los 26 tax6nes de mamfferos representados, los 17 ungulados se discuten en el presente reporte, en otros trabajos se discuten los carnivoros, pequeflos mamfferos, y vertebrados primitivos. Todos los ungulados son ramoneadores mas que pasteadores y muchos no han sido previamente descritos para la Planicie Costera del Golfo. Un gran porcentaje de los restos de mamiferos recuperados corresponde a formas riberefias, tales como anthracotheros y tapires, aunque tambi6n son comunes los caballos, rinocerontes y una nueva especie de protoceratido pequetto, Prosynthetoceras orthrionanus sp. nov. Otros ungulados incluyen un pequeflo chalicothero, un nuevo rinoceronte, Gu(foceras wes#alli gen. et sp. nov., y un entelodonte gigante. La abundancia de protoceratidos, tapires, anthracotheros y rinocerontes; asi como la ausencia de oreodontos y la rareza de cam61idos en la curva de Toledo contrastan con las faunas Arikareanas en Florida donde los protoceratidos y anthracotheros estan ausentes, los rinocerontes y tapires son extremadamente raros, los oreodontes estan presentes y los camdlidos son relativamente comunes. 1 * Currently, Curator of Paleontology, Museum of Northern Arizona, 3101 N. Fort Valley Rd., Flagstaff AZ 86001; formerly, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Vertebrate Paleontology, Florida Museum of Nairal History, University of Florida Gainesville FL 32611. ALBRIGHT, L. BARRY III. 1999. Ungulates of the Toledo Bend Local Fauna (Late Arikareean, Early Miocene), Texas Coastal Plain. Bull. Florida Mui Nat. Hist 42(1):1-80. 2 BULLETIN FLORIDA MUSEUM NATURAL HISTORY VOL. 42(1) TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 2 Abbreviatinng 5 Acknowledgments................................................................................................................................ 5 Geographic and Geological Setting Sedimentological and Taphonomic Context ..,............................................,........................................ 6 Systematic Paleontology 9 Age and Correlation Summary 73 Literature Cited.................................................................................................................................... 75 INTRODUCTION The most diverse late Arikareean assemblage yet recorded from the Gulf Coastal Plain, the Toledo Bend Local Fauna, was recovered during summer months of 1989-90 from a submerged site in a canal that connects the Toledo Bend Reservoir with the Sabine River in Newton County, Texas. A detailed description of the site is provided in previous papers that focused on the lower vertebrate (Albright, 1994) and non-ungulate mammalian taxa (Albright, 1996), and on a comparison with other early Miocene faunas of the Gulf Coastal Plain and their relationship with faunas of the northern Great Plains as a function of dispersal and endemism (Albright, 1998a). This report, the last of a series on the Toledo Bend Local Fauna, provides the systematic account of all ungulates recovered with the exception of the tapir found there. The latter taxon, determined to represent a new genus, is described and discussed in Albright (1998b). Ungulates in addition to the tapir include two horses, three rhinoceroses, a chalicothere, an entelodont, three peccaries, an anthracothere, a camelid, two protoceratids, a hypertragulid, and an unidentified small artiodactyl. All are low-crowned browsing forms. Table 1 is an updated faunal list of all vertebrate taxa currently comprising the Toledo Bend Local Fauna. Prior to study of the Toledo Bend Local Fauna, nearly all knowledge regarding the Arikareean Land Mammal "Age" for the Gulf Coastal Plain was based on a handful of assemblages in Florida such as the Buda, SB-lA, Franklin Phosphate Pit No. 2, Brookesville, White Springs, and Cow House Slough local faunas (see Albright, 19988, and references within). Current study of the newly discovered Brookesville 2 Local Fauna by Florida Museum of Natural History personnel will add considerably to our understanding of this interval in this region (G. Hayes, pers. comm.). Localities in Texas, such as the Cedar Run Local Fauna, also have yielded mammals indicative of the Arikareean, yet the quality and ALBRIGHT: UNGULATES FROM TOLEDO BEND 3 Table 1. Faunal list of all early Miocene vertebrates from the Toledo Bend Local Fauna. Compiled and updated from Albright (1991, 1994, 1996, and 1998) and Manning, (1990). Osteichthyes Mammalia (cont.) Lepisosteus sp. Proheteromys toledoensis Atractosteus spatula Proheteromys sabinensis Ictalums punctatus Texomys sp. Micropterus sp Carnivora ?Centropomus sp '?Palaeogale sp Amphibia Daphoenodon notionastes Batrachosauroides sp. Perissodactyla ?Sirenidae '?Miohippus sp Reptilia Anchippus texanus Trionychini Moropus sp. Dermatemys sp. Nexuotapirus marslandensis Emydid, small sp. Gulfoceras westjalli n. genet sp. Emydid, large sp. Diceratherium annectens Hesperotestudo sp. Diceratherium armatum Peltosaurus sp Artiodactyla Anilioides nebraskensis ?Dinohyus sp. Erycinaeid boid "Cynorca" sociale Alligator olseni '?Floridachoerus oiseni Gavialosuchus sp '?Hesperhys sp Mammalia Arretotherium acri(lens Insectivora sp. indet. Nothokemas sp. Rodentia Prosynthetoceras orthrionanus n. sp Protospermophilus sp Prosynthetoceras texanus sp. Neatocastor hespents Nanotragulus Eomyid or cricetid indet. Small artiodactyl indet. amount of material, as well as the diversity of taxa, is substantially less when compared with sites in Florida. The Toledo Bend Local Fauna is significant therefore, because it finally provides a view into the Arikareean of the western region of the Gulf Coastal Plain that is based on an abundance of high quality fossils representing a wide diversity of species. As a consequence, new views regarding this distinct biogeographic province during the earliest Miocene, unrecognized when seen solely through the Florida "window," are now forthcoming. Of additional importance is the interval of time represented by the Toledo Bend Local Fauna and by the correlative assemblages in Florida noted above. Recent magnetostratigraphic studies in northwestern Nebraska have determined that strata of the Arikaree Group (in which the defining faunas of the Arikareean Land Mammal "Age" originated) spanning the interval from about 27 to 22 Ma are apparently missing (MacFadden and Hunt, 1998). Importantly, it is the later part of this interval, the early part of the late Arikareean, thought to be sampled by these 4 BULLETIN FLORIDA MUSEUM NATURAL HISTORY VOL. 42(1) Gulf Coastal Plain assemblages (Albright, 1998a). It may be, therefore, that the "endemic" early Miocene Gulf Coast fauna is, to some degree, an artifact of sampling a temporal interval not previously represented in the North American record. The Toledo Bend Local Fauna differs