Proceedings of the United States National Museum
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM issued SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM Vol.92 Washington: 1942 No. 3155 THE LATE CENOZOIC VERTEBRATE FAUNAS FROM THE SAN PEDRO VALLEY, ARIZ. By C. Lewis Gazin The collections of fossil vertebrate remains in the United States National Museum from deposits in the San Pedro Valley of south- eastern Arizona have come to be of much significance in including materials representing appreciable portions of previously little- known microfaunas of upper Pliocene and early Pleistocene stages. The study of these materials, for the most part collected by J. W. Gidley, was undertaken by him but never completed. Important parts of the two principal collections were left undescribed, so that our knowledge of the faunas as a whole was dependent upon a somewhat inaccurate list, compiled before portions had been studied and before some portions were prepared. Hence, it has been found advisable to complete the undertaking by including in the present paper brief dis- cussions of the elements of both the described and undescribed por- tions. Revision has been made of certain identifications and conclu- sions, where such changes are indicated by more recent information. I wish to express my gratitude to the staff of the Division of Mam- mals of the United States National Museum, for permitting me unrestrained access to the collections of Recent mammals, and to C. W. Hibbard, of the University of Kansas, for information pertaining to materials from the upper Pliocene of Kansas and for the privilege of examining carnivore and rodent materials therefrom. The draw- ings depicting Oanis edwardii, new species, Spilogale pedroensls, new species, and Tanupolama cf. longurio were made by Sydney Prentice. The others, except for a camera lucida drawing of Sylvilagus? hen- sonensis, new species, were made by Rudolf Weber. 469725—42 1 475 476 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 92 PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS A first systematic search of the fossiliferous deposits was made by Gidley early in 1921, when, in cooperation with the United States Geological Survey and in the company of Kirk Bryan, he examined and collected from localities discovered by Bryan the previous year. The expedition proved to be of marked success, resulting in a collec- tion of materials that included specimens of exhibition value and a representation of faunas of considerable scientific interest, being the earliest to portray sizeable microfaunae of a relatively obscure por- tion of the Cenozoic. A popular account of the expedition (Gidley, 1922a) appeared in a report on the Explorations and Field Work of the Smithsonian In- stitution in 1921. Gidley's preliminary report on the collection and detailed description of the rodents and lagomorphs were published by the United States Geological Survey in 1922, and in 1926 his report of the Proboscidea and Edentata appeared. C. W. Gilmore, in 1922, described a new turtle from the Benson occurrence, and in 1928 and 1938 included statements on the lizard and snake remains from the Benson and Curtis Ranch localities, respectively, in his monographs on these groups. Remains of the rather large avifauna, principally from Benson, were studied by Alexander Wetmore (1924). The two faunas as a whole, or in part, have been the subject of much discussion in subsequent writings, including those of Hay (1927), Osborn (1936), J. R. Schultz (1937), and Wilson (1937); and new forms were added to the faunas by Frick (1937), Stirton (1931), and A. E. Wood (1935). On a second trip to the San Pedro Valley in 1924 Gidley made a collection from the Benson and Curtis ranch localities for the Ameri- can Museum under a grant from Childs Frick. The materials in this collection, except for the heteromyid rodents examined by Wood, have not been described. Additional collecting in these beds has been done by parties for Mr. Frick, and the horned ruminant mate- rial therein was described by him (1937). In the company of E. L. Furlong, I visited the San Pedro Valley in 1928, and together we made a small collection of mammal remains, including the type of Simonyctens stocki^ from the Curtis ranch for the California Institute of Technology. Again in 1936 I was permit- ted to revisit the San Pedro Valley for the Smithsonian Institution, and the party of that season was successful in securing additional specimens of small mammals from both the Benson and Curtis ranch localities. A popular account of the 1936 expedition was included in the Smithsonian Institution report of explorations for that year. FOSSIL VERTEBRATES FROM SAN PEDRO VALLEY—GAZIN" 477 BIBLIOGRAPHY ON FOSSIL VERTEBRATES FROM SAN PEDRO VALLEY, ARIZONA Fbick, Childs. 1937. Horned ruminants of North America. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 69, pp. i-xxviii, 1-669 (507, 527), figs. 1-68. Gazin, Charles Lewis. 1937. Hunting for fossil mammals in the Navajo Country. Explorations and Field-Work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1936, pp. 19^22, figs. 13-16. GiDLET, James Williams. 1922a. [Field explorations in the San Pedro Valley and Sulphur Springs Valley of southern Arizona] Explorations and Field-Work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1921, pp. 25-30, figs. 27-30. 1922b. Preliminary report on fossil vertebrates of the San Pedro Valley, Arizona, vpith descriptions of new species of Rodentia and Lago- morpha. U. S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper 131-E, pp. 119-131, pis. 34, 35. 192G. Fossil Proboscidea and Edentata of the San Pedro Valley, Arizona. U. S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper 140-6, pp. 83-94, pis. 32-44. GtLMORE, Charles Whitney. 1922. A new fossil turtle, Kinosternon arizonense, from Arizona. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 62, art. 5, pp. 1-8, pis. 1-5. 1928. Fossil lizards of North America. Mem. Nat. Acad. Scl., vol. 22, pp. i-ix, 1-201 (29), figs. 1-106, pis. 1-27 (pi. 27, fig. 6). 1938. Fossil snakes of North America. Geol. Soc. Amer. Special Paper No. 9, pp. i-vii, 1-96 (70), figs. 1-38, pis. 1-3. Hay, Ouvee Perry. 1927. The Pleistocene of the western region of North America and its vertebrated animals. Carnegie Inst. Washington Publ. 322B, pp. 1-346 (3, 10, 54, 78, 80, 136-137), figs. 1-19 (4), maps 1-20 (1, 2, 9, 12, 13), pis. 1-12. OsBOKN, Henry Fairfield. 1936. Proboscidea, a monograph of the discovery, evolution and extinction of the mastodonts and elephants of the world, vol. 1 : pp. i-xl, 1-802 (565-566, 678-682), figs. 1-680 (526, 634, 635, 640, 646-649), pis. 1-12. ScHULTz, John R. 1937. A late Cenozoic vertebrate fauna from the Coso Mountains, Inyo County, California. Carnegie Inst. Washington Publ, 487, pp. 75- 109 (85-86, 94, 98), figs. 1-5 (1-3), pis. 1-8. Stieton, Ruben Arthur. 1931. A new genus of the family Vespertilionidae from the San Pedro Pliocene of Arizona. Univ. California Publ. Bull. Dept. Geol. Sci., vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 27-30, figs. 1-2. Wetmore, Alexander. 1924. Fossil birds from southeastern Arizona. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 64, art. 5, pp. 1-18. seerij Wilson, Robert Warren. , , . -ro^t-Tj. 1937. Pliocene rodents of western North America. Carnegie Inst. Washing-r Publ. 21-73 62-64, ton No. 487, pp. (39^0, 68). ,..;• .,., ,, ,,;.;[- -i 9ii! lo Wood, Albert Elmeb. eT»w rrotr eseill leriT 1935. Evolution and relationships of the heteromyid rodents with newp, forms from the Tertiary of western North America. Ann. Cac-:> negie Mus., vol. 24, pp. 73-262 (107, 146-148, 156-159), figs. 1-157. : 478 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 92 OCCURRENCE AND PRESERVATION OF THE MATERIAL The principal sites in the San Pedro Valley from which collections were made have come to be known as the Benson and Curtis ranch localities (pi. 42). The Benson occurrence is about 2 miles south of the town of Benson to the west of the San Pedro Kiver. The location is given by Gidley as sec. 22 (this appears to be sec. 21), T. 17 S., K. 20 E. (1926, p. 85), and all the Benson rodent and lagomorph materials collected are stated by him (1922, p. 119) to have come from one spot, a fossil bone quarry. The bone from here, though brittle and apparently well petrified, is light buff or ivory in color, superficially resembling recent bono. The Curtis ranch locality is about 12 miles southeast of Benson, or about halfway between Benson and Tombstone in a straight line. The mesa at this point is cut back to form a large amphitheatre to the east of the San Pedro Kiver. The locality where Gidley obtained the Curtis ranch rodent collection (pi. 43, fig. 1), one of the masto- donts, and a glyptodont (pi. 43, fig. 2) is about 2 miles in a northeast- erly direction from the Curtis ranch house, near the line between sees. 28 and 29, T, 18 S., R. 21 E., on land adjacent to the Curtis ranch proper. The rodent, lagomorph, and mustelid material collected by the 1936 party was all from Gidley's locality, although that collected for the California Institute of Technology in 1928 was from a site about half a mile or more to the west and nearer the ranch house. The bone from the Curtis ranch embayment is light gray or nearly white to black, and often much checked, with calcareous material adhering to it. The small mammal jaws from the rodent locality are nearly all slate-gray or black in contrast to the buff or ivory colored Benson specimens. The manner in wliich the fossil materials accumulated in the San Pedro Valley deposits has been discussed by Gidley (1926, p. 84), and his rather vivid account is included herewith The stratified beds of these localities consist principally of red clays, sands, and soft limestones that were evidently laid down in salt lakes of small extent in the central part of the Pliocene basin.