University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln USGS Staff -- Published Research US Geological Survey 1967 Panthera atrox (Mammalia: Felidae) from Central Alaska Frank C. Whitmore Jr. U. S. Geological Survey Helen L. Foster U. S. Geological Survey Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usgsstaffpub Part of the Earth Sciences Commons Whitmore, Frank C. Jr. and Foster, Helen L., "Panthera atrox (Mammalia: Felidae) from Central Alaska" (1967). USGS Staff -- Published Research. 233. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usgsstaffpub/233 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the US Geological Survey at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in USGS Staff -- Published Research by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. JOURNALOF PALEONTOLOGY,V. 41, NO. 1, P. 247-251, 1 TEXT-FIG., JANUARY 1967 PANTHERA ATROX (MAMMALIA: FELIDAE) FROM CENTRAL ALASKA FRANK C. WHITMORE, JR., ANDHELEN L. FOSTER U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C., and Menlo Park, California ABSTRACT-A lower jaw of the large Pleistocene cat Panthera atrox (Leidy) was found on an alluvial flat about 180 miles northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. It was probably washed out of carbonaceoussilt deposits which, in the adjacent area, have also yielded bones of Equus, Bison, Rangifer, Cervus,and Elephantidae.The Pantherajaw falls within the size range of the series from Rancho La Brea, California,and differsfrom Rancho La Brea specimensonly in a few characteristics.P. atroxappears to have been significantly largerthan extinct or modern Asian tigers. Despite continuity of the Americanand Asian land masses at times during the late Pleistocene, present evidence indicates discontinuity between the populations of great cats on the two continents. INTRODUCTION Only a few feet of the gravel is exposed along the RIGHT lower of the Pleistocene stream but it has been encountered in deep jaw large holes. The is overlain brown cat, Panthera atrox (Leidy) (U. S. National gravel generally by sand and to 10 feet the Museum 23619) was found on an alluvial flat sandy gravel up thick; sand and are in turn overlain 20 or near the mouth of Lost Chicken Creek, Alaska, gravel by more feet of silt. the sand in September 1964, by Terry Clark and Helen L. stony Locally layer be thin or absent so that the silt directly Foster, U. S. Geological Survey. The find was may overlies the Carbonaceous are made during the course of and terrain gravel. layers geological in the silt. Peat to 15 feet mapping of the Yukon-Tanana present deposits up Upland. thick overlie the silt in The and silt Lost Chicken Creek is a small, short places. peat very are frozen at 2 or (6,300 feet long) stream in east-central Alaska; generally permanently depths it flows south and southeast into the South Fork 3 feet below the surface. The bone does not show wear from of the Forty Mile River in T. 26 N., R. 18 E., being it is therefore that the Eagle A-2 U. S. Survey transported; conjectured quadrangle, Geological mandible of Panthera atrox washed out of car- 1:63,360 Topographic Map Series. The Taylor bonaceous silt near the mouth Highway crosses Lost Chicken Creek near mile- deposits exposed of Lost Chicken Creek not far from where the post 69, about 180 miles northeast of Fairbanks. Gold was discovered near the head of Lost bone was found. The following bones, now in the collection of the U. S. National were Chicken Creek in 1901 (Prindle, 1905, p. 48), Museum, found in the of Lost Chicken Creek and following earlier discoveries in nearby Chicken valleys Creek. Lost adjacent Chicken Creek, derived from deposits Gold-mining operations along of the same that the of P. atrox. Chicken Creek, which have continued intermit- type yielded jaw tently to the present, have removed considerable Perissodactyla terrace material, and in the process mammal Equus sp. cf. E. niobrarensisalaskae Hay: partial bones have been washed out. Local bone collec- mandible, with right I,, 13,C, and P2 and left Io,3 and C (USNM 23620); and an upper molar tors regularly search the debris along Lost (USNM 23621). Chicken Creek just below the mining operations. Equus sp.: radius of a small horse (USNM 23622); The unconsolidated Pleistocene deposits near metacarpal of a slim, long-legged horse (USNM the head of Lost Chicken Creek are believed to 23623); metatarsal and humerus of a small horse (USNM 23624 and 23625). rest on Tertiary subaerially deposited sedimen- tary rocks, which include sandstone, shale, and Artiodactyla coal. Plant remains and impressions have been Bison bison (Linnaeus): M3 and two upper molars found in these rocks (USNM 23626). sedimentary (Prindle, 1905, Bison somewhat most of the sp.: metacarpal, larger than the p. 48). However, Pleistocene de- modernspecies (USNM 23627). posits of Lost Chicken Creek rest on a weathered Rangifer arcticus Richardson: right lower jaw surface of porphyrytic quartz diorite (Prindle, (USNM 23628). The section of the Pleis- Rangifersp.: metacarpal (USNM 23629). 1905, p. 47,48). general Cervus antler tocene Lost sp.: fragment from a large individual deposits along Chicken Creek con- (USNM 23630). sists of up to 75 feet of rounded, locally loosely cemented and limonitic-stained stream gravel. Another horse radius (USNM 23633) was 247 248 FRANK C. WHITMORE, JR., AND HELEN L. FOSTER C B TEXT-FIG.1-Right lower jaw of Panthera atrox, USNM 23619. A, lateral view, Xi; B, medial view, Xi; C, dorsal view of symphyseal region showingatrophied incisors,canine, and anteriorhalf of P3, X . found in the bed of Lost Chicken Creek near the sis and inferior edge of ramus 125?; chin sharply mouth of the stream. The radius is less weathered marked. No inferior symphyseal tubercle. Sym- than the other bones and may come from a Re- physis open. Dorsal surface of ramus in diastema cent horse. In addition to the above specimens, rounded rather than sharply ridged. Inferior an I3 and several terminal phalanges of Equus border of ramus convex; widely extended below are in the collection of Mrs. Ann Purdy of masseteric fossa, which is deep and extends an- Chicken, Alaska. Bones and teeth of Elephan- teriorly to a point below posterior end of M1. tidae are also commonly found by local collectors Ventral outline of horizontal ramus about mid- and miners along Chicken Creek. way between extremes of convexity and con- cavity seen in Rancho La Brea population (Mer- SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION riam & Stock, 1932, fig. 142). Angular process Class MAMMALIA broken. Articular process smoothly curved dorso- Order CARVIVORA heavier than in either lion or tiger; FELIDAE ventrally; Family resembles that of lion or jaguar more than tiger. PANTHERA ATROX 1953 (Leidy) Coronoid does not project backward 1 process Text-fig. beyond posterior end of condyle; in this it dif- The reader is referred to Merriam & Stock fers from 16 of the 17 Rancho La Brea specimens (1932), especially plates 32 and 33, for figures, examined by Merriam and Stock. Of Recent measurements, and descriptions of the only tiger jaws in the U. S. National Museum, the large population sample of Panthera atrox (that two from Korea (P. tigris longipilis) had coro- from Rancho La Brea, California) that has been noid processes extending back of the condyle. Of described. 10 Indian tigers, 2 had a backward-extending USNM 23169: Right mandibular ramus of an coronoid and 8 did not. Two vascular foramina, a old individual, larger than the mean of measure- millimeter apart and each about 2 mm in diam- ments of 16 individuals listed by Merriam & eter, lie 17 mm below medial side of canine. Two Stock (1932, table 92) but smaller than the type mental foramina, 12.5 mm apart: anterior, 5.3 of the species (No. 12546, Academy of Natural mm in diameter, lies below middle of diastema; Sciences, Philadelphia). Angle between symphy- posterior, 5.6 mm long by 3 mm high, lies below PANTHERIA FROM CENTRAL ALASKA 249 anterior half of P3. Only two incisors present: relatively short; the symphyseal angle is more median one represented by alveolus only, which acute, and hence the front of the jaw presents a shows the tooth to have been reduced and lat- more nearly square profile than do the specimens erally compressed; lateral one occupied by a figured by Merriam & Stock (1932, pl. 32). laterally compressed tooth that appears to have The geographic range of Panthera atrox ex- been pathologically eroded in life and to have tends from Alaska to the Valley of Mexico been nonfunctional. Compression and reduction (Freudenberg, 1910) and from California to of incisors is probably a function of advanced Florida (Kurten, 1965). Before Kurten reported age. Canine large, with marked wear facet on the species from Florida, it had not been defi- posterolateral side. P3 two-rooted: distinct but nitely identified east of Natchez, Mississippi, small anterior cusp; principal cusp slightly where the type specimen was found (Leidy, higher than long, with apex slightly posterior to 1853). Also present in eastern North America in middle of cusp; posterior cusp larger than an- Pleistocene time was the large jaguar called terior cusp, and separated from principal cusp Panthera onca augusta by Simpson (1941). This by shallow groove. P4: anterior cusp rounded, subspecies has not been well identified west of separated from principal cusp by deep notch; Nebraska. The overlap of ranges of P. atrox and principal cusp higher than long, apex median, P. onca angusta may be explained by a difference anterior slope of cusp longer than posterior in habitat. Kurten (1965, p. 223) states that, slope. Both anterior and posterior sides of prin- whereas the jaguar is mainly a forest animal, cipal cusp of P4 are vertical near base; posterior Panthera atrox appears in association with plains vertical face about twice as high as anterior one.