volume I, 1845, page 257, plate V, figure 1, Lyell announced the finding
of a part of a skull of a walrus at Gay Head. This he had purchased from
a fisherman who lived there and who said it had fallen out of a
conglomerate found at that place and which contains bones of cetaceans.
The skull retained but a small portion of its animal matter. Richard
Owen, to whom the skull was shown, regarded it as belonging to a species
distinct from _O. rosmarus_. The upper jaw contained the base of one
tusk, the socket for the other, and 3 molar teeth on each side. The
reduced number of molars furnishes no distinctive character, for
existing individuals sometimes present this number. The base of the tusk
has its transverse diameter greater than usual relatively to the
fore-and-aft diameter. According to Lyell’s illustration of the
specimen, the greater diameter was 70 mm., the shorter 53 mm. The writer
has seen no tusk of _O. rosmarus_ as thick as this; but the thickness is
variable and may possibly attain to two-thirds of the greater diameter.
Inasmuch as the Tertiary deposits at Gay Head, rising above the sea to a
height of about 150 feet, are capped by a sheet of glacial drift and
clays, it is probable that the skull in question had fallen from some of
these drift deposits. According to Professor J. B. Woodworth (17th Ann.
Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv., pt. I, p. 982), there are at Gay Head deposits
of drift which represent some of the older glacial stages as well as the
last one, the Wisconsin. It is possible, therefore, that this walrus
lived there as far back as the middle of the glacial epoch or even
earlier. For additional information on the geology of that island
consult Woodworth’s paper, in which the literature is cited; also the
important paper by N. S. Shaler (7th Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv., 1888,
pp. 303–363.)
The hooded seal, _Cystophora cristata_, has probably been found fossil
at Gay Head. The only reason for this supposition is found in a
statement made by Charles Lyell (Proc. Geol. Soc. London, vol. IV, p.
32; Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XLVI, 1844, p. 319). He says that with other
remains on Martha’s Vineyard he found a tooth having the crown
fractured. Lyell submitted the tooth to Richard Owen, who pronounced it
to be that of a seal which seemed to be nearly allied to the modern
_Cystophora proboscidea_ (_C. cristata_). It seems quite probable that
this species lived there at the time when the walrus haunted the region.
It is of course possible that the remains reported belonged to an animal
that lived in that region as far back as the Miocene. The tooth was not
described or figured.
NEW JERSEY.
13. _Long Branch._—Portions of several walrus skulls have been found on
the beach at Long Branch. Two of these were described and figured by
Leidy in 1867 (Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XI, p. 83, plate IV,
figs. 1, 2, plate V, fig. 1). One skull, lacking the lower jaw, some of
the right hinder part of the cranium, and the exserted portion of one
tusk, was discovered in 1853. The other specimen, discovered about 1856,
furnished the front of the skull as far back as the middle of the
palate. Both belonged to old individuals. Leidy concluded that the
animals which had possessed these skulls belonged to the existing
species _Odobenus rosmarus_. He surmised that they had been floated to
the New Jersey coast on fields of ice or perhaps had lived there during
the Glacial period. The skull which was found in 1853 is now in the
collection of the Philadelphia Academy; the other is in the collection
of the New Jersey Geological Survey. Recently, Mr. Samuel N. Rhoads has
studied these skulls. He had also for examination the skull from Sable
Island, which has been mentioned. He concluded that these skulls
belonged to a species distinct from _O. rosmarus_ and which might bear
DeKay’s name, _O. virginianus_.
It does not appear to the present writer that Rhoads has successfully
maintained his proposition. He did not have at hand a sufficient number
of skulls of the existing Atlantic walrus to present all the variations
that occur in that species. Of course, the number of fossil specimens
was very limited. In discussing Rhoads’s conclusion, it will be of
advantage to consider a part of a skull which belongs to the Marsh
collection in Yale University. This specimen consists of the anterior
half of the skull, without the tusks and without the other teeth. It was
found at Kitty Hawk, at the mouth of Albemarle Sound, just north of
latitude 36°. It is thoroughly fossilized; and, having been found so far
south, it may be safely regarded as having belonged to the species which
inhabited the New Jersey coast during the Pleistocene.
For purposes of comparison, such measurements are here given as can be
obtained from the skull; likewise the corresponding measurements of a
specimen from Sable Island, No. 199528 of the U. S. National Museum, and
of another, No. 22014 of the National Museum, brought from Ungava Bay.
Unfortunately, the basilar length of the fossil can not be determined,
nor the width of the mastoids.
_Measurements of skulls of walruses, in millimeters._
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────┬───────┬───────┐
│ │ Kitty │ Sable │Ungava │
│ │ Hawk. │Island.│ Bay. │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤
│From front of premaxillæ to rear of vomer │ 183│ 167│ 205│
│From front of tusk to optic foramen │ 188│ 177│ 195│
│From oral border of premaxilla to upper │ │ │ │
│ border of nasal opening │ 110│ 96│ 100│
│Greatest width across maxillæ │ 160│ 136│ 177│
│Least width at front of orbits │ 105│ 106│ 146│
│Least width at temporal fossæ │ 75│ 62│ 70│
│Width between the sockets for tusks │ 75│ 75│ 85│
│Length of row of teeth │ 82│ 60│ 83│
│Space between incisors │ 40│ 36│ 32│
│Space between last molars │ 62│ 60│ 53│
│Long diameter of tusk at base │ 34│ 26│ 38│
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────┴───────┴───────┘
The nasal bones of the fossil are so thoroughly consolidated with each
other and with the adjoining bones that their dimensions can not be
determined. There is no reason, however, for supposing that the length
was greater than 70 mm.
The grinding teeth of the fossil do not show the larger size that we
might expect from Rhoads’s determinations and from comparison with
Leidy’s illustrations. The second socket was almost exactly the diameter
of the same socket in the Sable Island specimen measured. The third
socket is larger than that of the skull from Sable Island. The sockets
for the first molars are very small and shallow; the socket for the left
incisor is still smaller, while that for the right incisor is wholly
effaced. The diameter of the socket for the second molar is much shorter
than that of the corresponding socket in the Ungava Bay specimen. In the
latter, the left incisor is present and large, but the other is missing
and the socket is nearly filled up. It is evident that the teeth are
extremely variable in both size and the number present.
Rhoads has found that the incisive foramina of the fossil skulls in his
hands are placed high above the alveolar borders. In the North Carolina
specimen this height is 32 mm.; in the Sable Island specimen in the U.
S. National Museum, 30 mm.; in the Ungava Bay specimen, about 22 mm. Nor
does the distance between the sockets for the incisors in the fossil
from North Carolina agree with that dimension in the two specimens from
Long Branch.
Despite the differences shown in the measurements in the table given
above, the writer must conclude that there are not as yet sufficient
reasons for regarding the Pleistocene walrus of the Atlantic coast as
specifically different from the existing form.
Dr. Albert Reid Ledoux, mining engineer, of New York City, when a young
man bathing at low tide at Long Branch, found a skull of a walrus. This
was given to Professor John S. Newberry and is now probably at either
Columbia University or the American Museum of Natural History. At the
same time and at the same spot was a heel-bone of _Megatherium_, now in
the American Museum (p. 31). It is very improbable that these two
animals lived there at the same time.
According to recent publications of the Geological Survey of New Jersey
(Salisbury, Report for 1897, p. 19, pl. I; Lewis and Kümmel, Bull. No.
14, p. 120, with Geologic Map of New Jersey, 1910–1912), Long Branch is
situated on the Cape May formation. This is regarded by the geologists
just quoted as corresponding in age, in great part at least, to the
Wisconsin stage. When this deposit was laid down, the New Jersey coast
was depressed from 35 to 50 feet below its present level. It seems very
probable that at that time the walrus was living there and that the
skulls found have been washed out of this deposit by the waves during
storms. Nevertheless, the finding of _Megatherium_ at Long Branch shows
that there are deposits present which belong probably to early
Pleistocene.
Dr. H. B. Kümmel, State Geologist of New Jersey, has informed the writer
that a strip 0.25 to 0.75 mile back from the ocean in the region about
Long Branch probably belongs to the Recent time. He states that one
would be safe in concluding that the skulls of the walrus were found in
deposits not older than the Cape May and that they may have occurred in
more recent beds. Against the view that the walruses found along this
coast lived there during the Recent period is their well-fossilized
condition.
14. _Ocean Grove, Monmouth County._—In 1910, after a storm, a part of a
skull of a walrus was found on the beach at Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
This is still in the possession of the finder, Mr. W. S. Hidden, who
furnished the writer with photographs of the specimen. It consists of
the front of the skull extending back to the bases of the zygomatic
arches, and containing portions of both tusks and most of the teeth.
There is no likelihood that this specimen belonged to any other species
than _Odobenus rosmarus_, and it was probably washed out of the same
deposits as those which furnished the specimen found at Long Branch.
VIRGINIA.
15. _Accomac County._—In the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of
New York, volume II, 1828, page 271, Messrs. Mitchill, Smith, and Cooper
made a report on a fossil walrus skull found along the Virginia coast
somewhere in Accomac County. Only the anterior half of the skull was
secured. According to this report, portions of the tusks were preserved,
but were much mutilated. There were present also 4 of the grinding
teeth. The skull was described as being remarkably hard and heavy and
the tusks were almost agatized. The sutures of the skull had mostly
closed up; hence the animal was evidently an old one. The specimen bore
the marks of having been in salt water, and was said to have been found
on the beach.
This is the specimen which DeKay, in 1842 (Zool. of N. Y., pt. I, p. 56,
plate XIX, fig. 1), made the type of his _Trichechus virginianus_.
Newberry, in 1873 (Proc. Lyc. Nat. Hist. New York, p. 71), identified
the specimen as belonging to the existing Atlantic species. Cope (Proc.
Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XIV, 1874, p. 17) does not mention the presence
of tusks. He supposed that there was, at that part of the coast, glacial
drift, out of which the skull had been washed. There are, however, no
such deposits in that region. This specimen was placed in the collection
of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, but according to Rhoads,
was afterward destroyed in a fire.
On examination of G. B. Shattuck’s work on the Pleistocene of Maryland
(Maryland Geol. Surv., Pliocene and Pleistocene volume, p. 95, plate I),
it seems that the coast of Virginia in Accomac County is occupied by the
Talbot formation. This, according to his theory, corresponds, at least
the part nearest the coast, with the Cape May formation of New Jersey.
Hence we might conclude that the walrus skull in question had become
buried, probably during the Wisconsin glacial stage. The present writer
regards the principal part of the Talbot terrace as being much older.
Messrs. W. B. Clark and B. L. Miller (Virginia Geol. Surv. Bull., No.
IV, p. 187) recognize the presence of the Talbot formation in Accomac
County, where it seems to reach a thickness of 100 feet; but the authors
add that part of this may belong to earlier Pleistocene formations.
NORTH CAROLINA.
16. _Kitty Hawk, Currituck County._—In the Marsh collection of fossils
belonging to Yale University is a part of a skull found somewhere near
Kitty Hawk. No particulars regarding the exact place of discovery
accompany the specimen. It has already been described on page 27; and,
while there are some differences between it and the recent skulls used
for comparison, it is not believed that a distinct species is indicated.
According to L. W. Stephenson’s map of the Coastal Plain of North
Carolina (North Carolina Geol. and Econom. Surv., vol. III, plate XIII),
the coast at Kitty Hawk and for about 50 miles back of this is occupied
by the Pamlico formation. This corresponds to the upper part of the
Talbot of Maryland, and it, or part of it, may have been deposited at
the close of the Pleistocene. So far as the present writer knows, there
is nothing to show the character of the climate then prevailing. As this
Pamlico nowhere rises more than 25 feet above sea-level, and as the
thickness is usually only from 15 to 20 feet, it is possible that the
walrus skull found at Kitty Hawk had been unearthed by the waves from
the Chowan formation or some still earlier deposit.
SOUTH CAROLINA.
17. _Charleston._—In 1876 Leidy announced (Proc. Phila. Acad., 1876, p.
80) that a complete tusk of a walrus had been found in the Ashley River,
near Charleston. This tusk Leidy described and figured in 1877 (Jour.
Phila. Acad., vol. VIII, fig. 6). It had evidently been dredged from the
river in collecting phosphate rock, as have been most of the fossils of
that region. The tusk was 13 inches long. Near the base it measured 3.62
inches and transversely 1.75 inches. Leidy especially noticed the
shortness of the tusk as compared with the diameter, but concluded that
the tusk might, during the life of the individual, have been broken off
and worn obliquely at the end.
In the collection of the Charleston Museum are some fragments of tusks
of a species of walrus, probably _O. rosmarus_. One of these, No. 1028,
furnishes 184 mm. of the distal end. The width at the fracture is 60
mm., the thickness 29 mm. The distal end is worn off somewhat obliquely,
but not so much as in the tusk figured by Leidy; also, the tusk appears
to have been less curved than the one which he described. The original
length can not be determined.
Another fragment, No. 1029, was given to the Charleston Museum by Major
E. Willis and was no doubt found in the region about Charleston. This
gentleman has sent a fossil horse-tooth and a part of a sirenian to the
U. S. National Museum from Wando River. The fragment is short, but
belonged to a large tusk, its long diameter being 81 mm., the shorter
one 51 mm. It was therefore a larger tusk and one whose thickness was
relatively greater than that of the imperfect specimen found at Long
Branch and figured by Leidy.
Mr. Earle Sloan’s collection at the Charleston Museum has two other
fragments of tusks. One, No. 13497, is 113 mm. long, 60 mm. wide, and 25
mm. thick; the other, No. 13296, is 140 mm. long, 60 mm. wide, and 31
mm. thick.
Considering that all of the remains of the walrus found about Charleston
have been picked out of great quantities of phosphate rock collected for
commercial purposes, and that no records of the exact locality where
obtained have been kept, it is impossible to determine their exact
geological age. It is to be supposed that this animal inhabited the
region about Charleston at the time it frequented the coasts of North
Carolina and New Jersey. This appears to have been during the Wisconsin
stage; but it is possible that the walrus extended its range far
southward during more than one of the glacial stages. All of the
specimens appear to be thoroughly fossilized.
FINDS OF XENARTHRA IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA.
NEW JERSEY.
(Map 3.)
1. _Long Branch, Monmouth County._—In the American Museum of Natural
History, New York, there is a large heel-bone which was found at the
place named and identified as having belonged to a species of
_Megatherium_, most probably to _M. mirabile_. It was presented by Dr.
A. R. Ledoux, of New York, who wrote that he found it about 40 years ago
while bathing at Long Branch. With this bone were found a skull of a
walrus and a tooth of a mastodon. The heel-bone is somewhat more than 15
inches long. It was incrusted with barnacles and small oyster shells.
While one can not at present be certain that this animal did not live up
to a late stage of the Pleistocene, it is improbable that it did so. It
is also quite improbable that the megatherium and walrus lived at Long
Branch at the same time. It is more likely that the megatherium had its
existence there at the time when horses lived in the same region and
when the Port Kennedy fauna existed; that is, at some time during the
early Pleistocene about the Aftonian stage.
PENNSYLVANIA.
(Map 3.)
1. _Port Kennedy, Montgomery County._—From the noted bone cave at Port
Kennedy a number of species of _Megalonyx_ have been described. The
presence of this genus was first announced by Wheatley (Amer. Jour.
Sci., ser. 3, vol. I, p. 384). Cope, in 1899 (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci.,
Phila., vol. XI, pp. 211–219), admitted the occurrence of 4 species,
_Megalonyx wheatleyi_, _M. loxodon_, _M. tortulus_, and _M. scalper_. It
must be left to future investigations to determine the status of these
species. _M. jeffersonii_ was not recognized by Cope in the materials
found in the cave. Of _M. loxodon_, only a single upper canine molar was
found. Of _M. wheatleyi_, numerous specimens were secured, including
considerable parts of crushed and decayed skulls. _M. tortulus_ was
represented by a considerable number of teeth; _M. scalper_ by only a
single “canine-molar.” On page 312 will be found a list of the species
of vertebrates associated with these sloths. Of _Mylodon_, Wheatley (op.
cit., p. 384) had a single ungual phalanx which Cope (op. cit., p. 210)
thought belonged probably to _M. harlani_.
2. _Frankstown, Blair County._—Remains of an undetermined species of
_Megalonyx_ have been reported from a bone cave at this place by Dr. W.
J. Holland (Ann. Carnegie Mus., vol. IV, 1908, p. 231). The associated
species are listed on pages 321–322.
OHIO.
(Map 3.)
1. _North Fairfield, Huron County._—In the Norwalk, Huron County, Museum
there are various bones of _Megalonyx jeffersonii_ which were obtained
about 7 miles from North Fairfield. The writer learned of the discovery
of this skeleton from Mr. Roe Niver, a student of the University of
Illinois. Unfortunately Mr. Niver died before the writer could obtain
all the desired information. A part of the skeleton was in his
possession and is probably in the possession of his family, but the
writer has been unable to secure any information from them. The bones
were found at a depth of a few feet in a hackberry swamp and were
considerably scattered. In the search for these the bones which form the
type of _Bison sylvestris_ Hay were found. The locality is within the
area of the Wisconsin drift-sheet and evidently the animal lived there
after the ice had retired from the region.
2. _Millersburg, Holmes County._—In the University of Ohio there is a
mounted specimen of _Megalonyx jeffersonii_ containing a considerable
part of the skeleton; the missing portions are replaced artificially.
The remains were found in the eastern part of Holmes County just north
of the terminal moraine of the Wisconsin drift-sheet. This moraine had
led to the formation of a marsh, and in this the animal ended his life.
The place was said by Orton to be 6 miles east and a mile north of
Millersburg. The skeleton lay on shell marl beneath 6 feet of peat. The
remains have been described by Claypole (Amer. Geologist, vol. VII,
1891, pp. 122–132, 149–153) and by Hay (Geol. Surv. Indiana, vol. XXXVI,
1913, p. 558; Geol. Surv. Iowa, vol. XXIII, 1914, p. 110).
INDIANA.
(Map 3.)
The only member of the order of Xenarthra that has yet been found in
this State is _Megalonyx jeffersonii_, and this in only one place, viz,
Evansville.
1. _Evansville, Vanderburg County._—In 1854 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci.
Phila., vol. VII, pp. 199–200), Leidy described a collection of
vertebrate fossils secured by Mr. Francis A. Lincke from the banks of
the Ohio River, near the mouth of Pigeon Creek, a short distance below
Evansville. At that time and locality bones were usually found sticking
out of the bank when the water in the river was low. The bones sent to
Leidy were thoroughly impregnated with oxide of iron, which served as a
cement to adhering pebbles, sand, and fragments of Unios and shells of
other fresh-water mollusks. The remains of the megalonyx consisted of
parts of two tibiæ of young individuals, an atlas, a fragment of a
heel-bone, a metacarpal and a metatarsal bone, and a claw phalanx. With
these were discovered a fragment of a cervical vertebra of a species of
bison, various bones of the Virginia deer, a vertebra of a horse,
probably _Equus complicatus_, a tooth of the tapir _Tapirus haysii_, and
a part of the upper jaw of the wolf now known as _Ænocyon dirus_, but at
that time called by Leidy _Canis primævus_.
The principal interest in these remains is to determine at what time
during the Pleistocene the megalonyx lived. Some indications may be
obtained from a study of its companions. From a part of a cervical
vertebra Leidy could not name the bison, but it belonged probably to one
of the extinct species. The deer is yet living, but appears to have
existed through most of the Pleistocene. The species of horse
represented is extinct, and there is no evidence that it lived after the
Wisconsin glacial stage. Its latest representatives probably lived
during the Sangamon stage. No tapir is known to have lived after the
Wisconsin stage. The wolf, _Ænocyon dirus_, is believed to be
represented in the numerous individuals found in the asphalt beds of Los
Angeles, California, probably equivalent in age to the Aftonian.
Mr. Arthur C. Veatch (Jour. Geology, vol. VI, pp. 257–272) has given an
account of changes which have occurred along the Ohio River in Spencer
County, Indiana, about 25 miles above Evansville, since late Pliocene
times. According to his investigations, the valley of the river was
deeply excavated into the Carboniferous rocks during the Ozarkian
uplift. Since that time, during the Pleistocene epoch, that great valley
has been, to a large extent, filled up by alluvial deposits. While the
greater part of these deposits were laid down during glacial stages, it
is not improbable that some were made during the Aftonian stage and that
a part of these yet exist along the borders of the river. It is still
more probable that Sangamon beds yet exist there and that the bones
Leidy described were found here.
Many bones of the megalonyx were described by Leidy (Smithson. Contrib.
Knowl., vol. VII, article V) from a locality 5 or 6 miles below
Henderson, Kentucky, not much more than 10 miles in a straight line from
the mouth of Pigeon Creek. The bone-bed was said by Dr. D. D. Owen (op.
cit., p. 7) to be about 5 feet above ordinary low-water. In the same bed
Owen found abundant remains of the deer. He seemed to regard this
bone-bed as a continuation of that existing at Pigeon Creek.
_Megalonyx_ has been found at Bigbone Lick, between Cincinnati and
Louisville, associated with _Equus complicatus_, two species of extinct
bisons, and the Virginia deer, in deposits overlying Illinoian drift and
hence belonging, in part at least, to the Sangamon. These deposits are,
however, at a higher level, being now submerged only at times of very
high-water in the Ohio River. If these and the Pigeon Creek beds are of
the same age, we may suppose that the animals entombed at the latter
place were buried low down in the deep valley along the river banks,
while those at Bigbone became covered up around salt springs at a higher
level.
ILLINOIS.
(Map 3.)
1. _Urbana, Champaign County._—In the fall of 1909 a claw phalange of
_Megalonyx jeffersonii_ was found near Urbana by Mr. Lindley, of Urbana.
An excavation was being made at the eastern end of Crystal Lake, and the
tooth, as reported to the writer by Professor C. C. Adams, was
discovered in a blue clay. The writer has seen the tooth. The extreme
length in a straight line had been close to 145 mm. The greatest
thickness was 42 mm. This has been figured by the writer (Iowa. Geol.
Surv., vol XXIII, plate III, figs. 5, 6, text-figs. 28–29).
Inasmuch as all this region is covered by Wisconsin drift and this tooth
was found in a deposit lying on the top of this drift, there can be no
reason for denying that this species lived after, probably long after,
the withdrawal of the Wisconsin ice. Two occurrences of the same species
in Ohio confirm the conclusion.