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Download Vol. 2, No. 5 BULLETIN OF THE FLORIDA STATE MUSEUM BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Volume 2 Number 5 TWO PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIAN FAUNAS FROM ALACHUA COUNTY, FLORIDA Robert S. Bader 1111 4·r /853 UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA Gainesville 1957 The numbers of THE BULLETIN OF THE FLORIDA STATE MUSEUM, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, will be published at irregular intervals. Volumes will contain about 300 pages and wilI not necessarily be completed in any one calendar year. William J. Riemer, Editor Roland F. Hussey, Associate Edito¥ All communications concerning purchase or exchange of the publication should be addressed to the Curator of Biological Sciences, Florida State Museum, SeagIe Building, Gainesville, Florida. Manuscripts should be sent to the Editor of the BULLETIN, Flint Hall, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. Published 15 August, 1957 Price for this issue 8.45 TWO PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIAN FAUNAS FROM ALACHUA COUNTY, FLORIDA ROBERT S. BADER1 One of the most varied and abundant faunas of Pleistocene verte- brates is found on the peninsula of Florida. This fauna has been stud- ied in the past chiefly by Leidy, Sellards, Hay, and Simpson. However, little has been added in published form to our knowledge of Pleisto- cene mammals since the work of Simpson in the early 1930's. Verte, brate paleontological activity in the state is greater now than it has been for many years, and it is to be hoped that it will continue unabated for many years to come. Activation of the fossil vertebrate collection at the University of Florida has been[ an important step in the revitaliza- tion of this field of study in the state. Two assemblages of mammals from new Pleistocene localities have been recently studied by the auth6r; a preliminary report is presented here. ARREDONDO Solution channels, pits, and sinkholes in the Ocala Limestone are among the most dominant of the topographic features in north-central Florida. These depressions have been receiving freshwater sediments, at least periodically, since the Lower Miocene. Although the strati- graphic sequence may vary considerably, even in closely adjacent basins, the general outlines of the Pleistocene sequence in the area embracing Marion, Alachua, and Levy Counties emerge with some clarity. The most superficial deposit is commonly a porous, brownish-red clayey sand-possibly representing a marine terrace-almost completely barren. It lies unconformably on an orange and blue sandy clay, which is frequently very fossiliferous. The clay is interrupted locally by a band of nearly pure, white or pink, quartz sand, which is generally a few inches thick and barren. The clay lies unconformably on the Ocala Limestone. In many places the clay is absent, in which case the contact is between the red sand and the underlying Ocala. A rather extensive collection of Pleistocene vertebrates has been made in fissures and channels in the Ocala Litnestone near Arredondo, approximately four miles southwest of Gainesville, Alachua County, - 1The work reported on here was performed while the author was serving as curator in vertebrate paleontology, Univergity of Florida Collections, and as Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville. Currently he is Assistant Professor, 6f Zoology, University of Illinois, Urbana. ManuAcript received 20 August 1956.-ED. 54 BULLETIN FLORIDA STATE MUSEUM Vol. 2 on State Highway 24. The Levy County Lime Rock Corporation has excavated two large pits in the area, exposing the depressions laterally. The pits are in SEY sec. 22, T. 10 S., R. 19 E., 4.2 miles from the inter- section of U.S. Highway 441 and State Highway 24 in southwest Gaines- ville. Pit I is just north of Highway 24; Pit II is a few hundred yards south of the first and south of the highway and the tracks of the Sea- board Airline Railroad. The most important single locality, par- ticularly for the larger mammals, is a nearly vertical Assure extending at'least 15 feet below the surface in the center of the north face of Pit I. The 16wer part of the exposed portion of the fissure was filled with the highly fossiliferous orange and blue clay described above. Eroded boulders of the Ocala Limestone were common in the clay filling, which was bounded below by an unfossiliferous quartz sand. This fissure is referred to as 1dcality "B" by Auffenberg (MS). A detailed account of the stratigraphy of the area is given by Brodkorb (in press). The fossiliferous clay is his Stratum No. 2. The following mammalian species have been identified, 41 percent of which are extinct:2 Marsupialia Carnivora Didelphis marsupialis Euarctos sp. lutenocyon ayersi Insectivora Scalopusaquaticus Edentata Blarina cf. B. brevicauda tDasypus bellus Chiroptera Proboscidea Myotis cf. M. austroriparius TMammut; americanum Rodentia Perissodactyla Sciurus cf. S. carolinensis t Tapirus veroensis Geomys pinetis 1Equus sp. Peromyscus sp. Neotoma #oridana Artiodactyla Pitymys pinetorum rMylohyus d. M. gidleyi 1Synaptomys austmlis tTan.upolama miri/ica Neofiber alleni t Tanupolama d. T. americana Odocoileus virginianus Lagomorpha Sylvitagus sp. 2Some,of the extant species are in the collection of James H. Gut, Sanford, Florida, and were identified by him. 1957 BADER: PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS 55 In additi6n to the mammals the area has yielded a large number of amphibian, reptilian, and avian species. The birds have been studied by Brodkorb (in press), the herpetofauna by Auffenberg (MS.). Most of the mammalian femains at Arredondo-and.also at Hornsby Springs, as discussed later-do not add appreciably to Out knowledge of the heveral species and are simply recorded here. The more important finds are discussed below. Mylohyds d. M. gidleyi Simpson The most complete remains of an individual mammal at Arredondo are those of a peccary found in Pit II. The articulated skeleton was discovered in the orange and blue clay near the northwest corner of the pit. A veneer of indurated .quartz sand covered·many of the bones and also sefved to h6ld the pedal elements in place. The specimen, a young adult, was discovered and collected by Pierce Brodkorb. The upper dentition includes the reft incisors, fight and left ca- nines, and the entire cheek dentition with the exception of the right Pa, Only small fpagments of the anterior dorsal part of the skull were found. The lower jaw is completely presefved; however, the left. P2 and three incisors are missing from the dentition. Almost the entire postcranial skeleton is present including the carpals, tarsals, metapodials, and most of the phalanges. The specimen (Florida Geological Survey V-5691) can be assigned unequivocally to Mytohyus, but its specific reference within that genus - is less certain. As regards the size relationship with reasonably similar species, it falls within the acceptable range of M. exortivus, M. penn- sylvanius, and M. browni, being slightly larger than the first and smaller than the latter two. However, it is separable from M. exortivus and M. pennsylvanius on the basis of markedly different proportions throughout most of the dental series and on the character of the Pz. It resembles the latter in the development -of the Ma· M. browni is characterized by an extremely long snout. the' diastema between the lower canine and the cheek teeth measuring 89 mm. in the type. The diastema in FGS V-5691 is 69 mm. in length. There are other differ- ences, including the nature.of the Ma. The specimen is provisionally referred to M. gidleyi, described by Simpson (1929a) from.Seminole Field, Florida. It is approximatply 10 percent larger than the type of M. gidleyi, a not uncommon rela- tionship between members of the same species. The inferior niolar proportions and the character. of the P2 are quite similar in the two- the type of M. gidleyi consist5 of the inferi6r dentition only. The 56 BULLETIN FLORIDA STATE MUSEUM Vol. 2 accessory cusps are beiter developed than in M. gidleyi, and while cingula are nearly absent internally and externally, as in the Seminole Field form, they are developed along the anterior and posterior margins of the cheek teeth. The heel of the M, consists of tWO subequal cusps arranged in tandem and a much smaller cuspule wedged externally be- tween the more anterior of the two and the hypoconid. The heel of the M3 of the Seininole Field type possesses ·an affteroexternal and posterointernal cusp and a small posteroexternal cuspule. The two differ to some extent in this trait which has usually been consikiered to be of taxonomic importance. However, this appears to be an ex- tremely variable character in Mylohytts, as is frequently the case with the terminal members of a dental series, and has probably been over- emphasized in taxonomic studies of the genus. The larger median upper incisor is separated from the smaller lateral incisor by a diasterna of 3 mm. The inferior canines are bounded by three planes, not four ·as in the type of M. tetragonus. The superior TABLE I DENTAL DIMENSIONS OF THE ARREDONDO PECCARY, FGS V-5691 PZ pa pl Ml M2 Ma TCS I. 9.3 11.6 13.6 15.0 15.7 15.8 80.5 AW 7.5 10.3 12.4 13.7 14.6 12.5 PW 6.6 10.3 12.0 12.7 13.2 9.8 ~2 P3 PM M: M, TCS L 9.3 11.7 13.4 14.9 15.6 19.8 84.6 AW 5.0 8.7 12.0 13.7 14.0 12 .7 PW 52 8.4 11.2 12.1 13.1 10.9 Mandible length (from the posterior border of the alveolus of the median incisor to the condyle) .244 Diastema length (between the canine and · the P ) ......... ____ 69 Symphysis width (minimuni) ._-_._..____ ........________. 20 Ramus height (the vertical distance between the dorsal border of the coronoid process and the ventral border of the ramus) .___ 86 Mandible height (the vertical,distance between.
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