THE ANCIENT FAUNA NEBRASKA, LEIDY 1852

to SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOTV LEDGE THE ANCIENT FAUNA NEBRASKA: OR, A DESCRIPTION OF REMAINS OF EXTINCT MAMMALIA AND CHELONIA, FROM THE MAIIVAISES TKRRES OF NEP.RA8KA JOSEPH ^.EIDY, M \)., I'BOFESSOE OP ANATOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSTLVANIA [a V 1, VI CO EP TED rOlt PIl li I I C ATION T) F CE M T! EK , 18 2.] COMMISSION TO WHICH THIS PAPER HAS BEEN REFERRED James Hall John L Leconte, M D Prof Joseph Henry, Secretary S I CONTENTS PAGE Preface Introduction MAMMALIA CONTENTS CHAPTER III 95 95 95 CARNIVORA Fain — DiGITIGRADA MacLairodus 95 primaevus C II EL NIA CHAPTER I Testudo 103 hemispherica 105 106 Oweni Culbertsonii 108 lata Synopsis of the Genera and Species of Extinct THIS Index 101 Ncbrascensis Work ExPIiANATION OP THE Pl.ATES Mammalia and Chelonia described 110 in 113 117 119 PREFACE The upon a The Ancient Fauna of Nebraska," present Memoir, entitled " large collection of fossil remains of and highly important is founded Mammalia and Chelonia, of the Eocene Period, from Nebraska Territory, which have been sub- mitted to me for examination by the New Harmony, Louis, to whom I of my Indiana, and Dr express my Smithsonian Institution, Dr David Dale Owen, Hiram A Prout and Prof O'Loghland, sincere thanks for the interest they S F Baird, Dr S D Culbertson, Messrs Alexander, Joseph, and Thaddeus Culbertson, Capt Stewart Van Vliet, Dr S G M'Clellan, Dr A H Senseny, and Mr J S Phillips, I I have taken in labors To Prof aid of St which they have contributed to the Morton, Dr John H B am also obliged for the work embrace the present occasion to acknowledge the talent of the have added so greatly to the value of the drawings which accompany and Messrs A it, viz : artists Memoir, by the excellent and who faithful Mr A Sonrel, of Woburn Centre, near Boston, J Ibbotson, A Frey, F Shell, and I Butler, of Philadelphia INTRODUCTION man, a long series of ages had rolled by, during which numerous races of jilants and animals successively originated and became extinct; and we no longer doubt our power to unveil the past, even to the period when the encrinite, the trilobite, and the brachiopod, were the sole representatives of life upon our planet It has ceased to be a startling fact that, prior to the advent of known In the earliest have been found, and tions palaeozoic rocks, remains of invertebrate animals only fossil fishes are first discovered in the upper Silurian forma- Recently, remains of reptiles have been detected in the Old of Morayshire, Scotland,^ but was not it Red Sandstone until the middle of the Secondary Period that this class of animals appears to have reached the acme of its development The era of the origin of birds will probably always be involved in more obscurity from their physical construction, their remains With the exception of footprints, supposed are the least likely to be preserved to be those of birds, but which may yet prove to be of reptiles, in the sandstone and conglomerate of the valley of the Connecticut, no truly characteristic remains than that of the other vertebrata, as, of the former class have been discovered in any of the primary or secondary fossili- ferous strata Of mammalia, a few undoubted remains have been found even as low in the geological series as the Trias Prof Plieninger recently discovered, in the bone- two molar which the name breccia of Wiirtemberg, ivorous animal, to teeth, supposed to have belonged to an insect- Microlesfes antiqims has been given." In the same deposit Prof Plieninger found several incisor teeth, which he considers to have appertained to a species of fish allied to Sargus, and, therefore, proposes for name of Sargodon, but Jaeger suspects they also may have mammal, which was allied to the AnopJotherium, Cuvier.^ the animal the longed to a be- In the Stonesfield slate of Oxfordshire, England, belonging to the Oolitic Period, seven halves, singularly enough, of lower jaws, have been discovered, which have been referred to three species of two genera of insectivorous marsupialia phigonus Prevostii, Ag landii, ' ; Am- the Owen.* Telerpeton elginense, Mantell : Quart Journ Geolog Soc, 1852, VIII 100 " Wurtemb naturw ^ Fos Siiugeth Wiirtemb., 1850, l.SO * Jahrb von Leon.u.Bronn, 1835, 186; 29, 61 : Amphigonus Broderipii; and the Phascolotherium Buck- Jahresb., 1847, III H 2, 164 Owen: Trans Geol Soc, 1841, VI 47,58; Brit Fos Mam., INTRODUCTION In Europe, uo remains of mammals have been detected in the cretaceous series, have been found in the Green Sand of New Jersey, associated with bones of the Mososaurus, which I have referred to two species of cetacea, under the names of Priscodelj)hinus grandcevits and Priscodelphinus Harlani} The tertiary geological period is remarkable for the great number of mammals which have been ushered into existence in successive races, and in the same course but in this country several vertebrae have become extinct In Europe, the earliest tertiary or eocene formations have yielded an extraordinary abundance of mammalian fossils, in which we have reason to feel a peculiar interest, as, through the brilliant genius of Cuvier, they became the opening chapter to the great volume of palajontological science Until recently, in North America, the only mammalian genus which had been detected as a member of the early Tertiary Period was the huge cetacean, the BasUosaums, Harlan, from the eocene deposits of Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina Of this genus several distinct species have been indicated as follow Basilosatjrtjs cetoides, Gibbes Zemjlodon cetoides, Owen: : Journ Ac Nat Sc, 1847, Trans Geol Soc, 1841, VI 69 Zewjiodon inacrospondi/his, Miiller: Fos Ees d Zeug., 1849 Basilosaukus serratus, Gibbes: Journ Ac Nat Sc, 1847, Zevglodon hrachyspondi/lxis, Miiller: Fos Bes Basilosaurus PYGM.a;us : I Zeug., 1849 d ? Zeiifjlodon 2iygniseus'( Miiller: Fos Res d Zeug., 1849 Quite lately, I referred a cervical vertebra found at Ouachita, Louisiana, to a new genus of cetacean animals under the name: PoNTOQENEUS PRiscus ? Leidy : Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1852, VI 52 (This may belong to the Basilo- saurus pygmmiis.^ Very numerous remains of extinct mammalia have also been discovered in the miocene and pliocene deposits of Europe, and likewise in those of the latter period in the Sivalik Hills of the Himalayas of India, in South America, and Australia The mammalia, which have been indicated as belonging to the Miocene Period of North America, are as follow : Leidy "Wyman: Am Journ Sc, 1850, X 229 Phocodon, Agassiz Wyman: Ibid., 56 Delphinus Calvertensis, Harlan: Proc Nat Inst "Washington, 1842, II 195 Delphinus Conradi, Leidy: Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1852, VI 35; Wyman: Am Journ Sc, 1850, X 231 Phoca Wymani, BAL.ffi;NA PALiEATLANTiCA, Leidy BAL.a;NA PRISCA, Leidy : : Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1851, V 308 Ibid In the pliocene deposits of this country the remains of extinct mammalia are very numerous, and a large number of species have been determined as follow : Cervus americanus, Harlan: Fauna Amer., 1825, 245 » Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1851, V 327 INTRODUCTION Cervus ? Elaphus ammcanus, Be Kay: Nat Hist New York, 1842, Pt I., Zool Mam., 120.' Bison latifrons, Leidy: Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1852, VI 117 j Smiths Contrib to Knowl., 1852, V Bos latifrons, Harlan: Fauna Amer., 1825, 273 Bison antiquus, Leidy: Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1852, VI 117; Smiths Contrib to Knowl., 1852, V 11 BoOTHEBiOM CAVIFRONS, Leidy: Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1852, VI 71; Smiths Contrib V 12 Bos PaUasii An Lye Nat Hist, of N York, 1828, IL 280 (in part), Pekay BOOTHERIUM BOMBIFRONS, Leidy: Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1852, VI 71; Smiths Contrib to Knowl., 1852, to Knowl., 1852, : V 17 Bos homhlfrons, Harlan Faun Amer 1825, 271 Ovis MAMMiLARis? Hildreth Am Journ Sc, 1837, XXXI 82 Haklanus americanus, Owen: Proc Ac Nat Sc, 184G, III 91; Journ Ac Nat Sc, 1847, I 18 Sus amcricana, Harlan: Amer Journ Sc, 1842, XLIII 143 Platygonus compressus, Le Conte: Am Journ Sc, 1848, V 103 ; Trans Am Ac Arts, 1848, III : : 257; Leidy: Trans Am Phil Soc, 1852, X 323 DiCOTTLES depressiprons, Le Conte: Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1852, VI 3; Leidy: Trans Am Phil Soc, 1852, X 323 DiCOTYLES TORQUATUS (JoSsiUs) Le Conte: Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1852, VI Le Conte: Am Journ Sc, 1848, V 105; Leidy: Trans Am prismaticus, Protochcerus Dicotyles costatus, Phil Soc, 1852, X 323 EucncERUs MACROPS, Leidy: Trans Am Phil Soc, 1852, X 323 Equus americanus, Leidy Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1847, III 262 HiPPARiON VENUSTUM, Leidy Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1853, VI 241 Tapirus americanus (fossilis) Carpenter: Am Journ Sc, 1842, XLII 390; : : Ibid., 1846, I 247; Leidy: Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1849, IV 180 Tcqnrus mastodontoides, Harlan Tapirus Haysii, Leidy : Elephas americanus Ac Proc Fauna Amer., 1825, 224 : Nat Sc, 1852, VI 148 of North America.') In part, of numerous authors (^The fossil elephant Elephas primigenius, Blumenbach Mastodon giganteus, See numerous authors Cuvier Ursus americanus (fossilis) Leidy Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1853, VI Ursus amplidens, Leidy Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1853, VI : : Felis atrox, Leidy : Am Trans Phil Soc, 1852, X 319 Procyon pbiscus, Le Conte Am Journ Sc, 1848, V 106 Anomodon Snyderi, Le Conte Am Journ Sc, 1848, V 106 Castor fiber {fossilis) Wyman Am Journ Sc, 1850, X 61 : : : Castoroides ohioensis, Foster: Second Ann Rep of the Geolog Survey of Ohio, 1838, 80, 81; Wyman Boston Journ Nat Hist Soc, 1846, V 385 Oromys ^sopi, Leidy Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1853, VI 241 Megatherium mirabile, Leidy Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1852, VI 117 Megatherium, Cuvier Cooper An Lye Nat Hist, of N York, 1824, 114 Ibid., 1828, II 267 Hodgson Mem on the Megatherium, 1846 Megatherium Cuvieri, Desmarest Harlan Fauna Amer., 1825, 200 Meoaxonyx Jeffersonii, Harlan: Fauna Amer., 1825, 201 Megalonyx laqiieatiis, Harlan Journ Ac Nat Sc, 1838, VI 269 Aulaxodon s Pleurodon, Harlan IMed and Phys Researches, 1835, 330 : : : : ; : : : : Megalonyx ' This dissimilis, Leidy: Proc Ac Nat Sc, 1852, VI 117 may prove to be a new species, but supposed by Dr Irish Elk De Kay, for the it certainly is not the Cervus americanus of Harlan, as remains of the latter indicate an animal even greater in size is than the Plate IVII I Butler Del T.Smclair'B Lith.Phila i-10 11-13 TITMOTHERIUM PROUTlI.Leidj PALAEOTHERIUM GIGANTEUM^Leidj Plate XVIII T Sinoiairs f.richcn Doi MAGllAIHODUS PRTMAT'iYI.kS, Loidy and Owen lith Phila — I X CD cJ*-r'»W. -'—r-^vi— "-" i-H