Читать книгу The Pleistocene of North America and its vertebrated animals - Oliver Perry Hay - Страница 50

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(Map 3.)

1. Natchez, Adams County.—Dr. M. W. Dickeson (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1846, p. 106) exhibited before the Academy a large series of fossil bones secured by him near Natchez. Among these were noted especially what was described as an entire head with part of the lower jaw, and many parts of the skeleton of Megalonyx jeffersonii. This skull is still in the collection of the Academy. The lower jaw is missing. It appears that several skeletons were represented in Dickeson’s collection. These, as Dickeson stated, had been found in a tenacious blue clay which underlies what he called diluvial drift, but now regarded as being at least principally loess. Associated with this animal were remains of Ursus, Bos (Bison), Cervus (Odocoileus), Equus, and some other but undetermined genera.

In his “Second Visit to the United States of North America,” edition 2, 1850, volume II, p. 196, Lyell mentions the Megalonyx among other fossils found at Natchez. He states that the fossils found by Doctor Dickeson were obtained in the “Mammoth Ravine” 6 miles from Natchez.

In Southall’s “Recent Origin of Man,” 1875, page 552, is a statement made by Professor C. G. Forshey (as quoted from Foster’s “Prehistoric Races of the United States,” p. 61) in which he says that he visited the locality where the human pelvis was found and that it was situated in Bernard’s Bayou, 2.5 miles from Natchez.

In his memoir of 1853 on “Extinct Species of American Ox” (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. V, art. III, p. 10), Doctor Leidy included Mylodon among the genera found at Natchez. In his memoir of 1855 on the “Extinct Sloth Tribe of North America” (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. VII, art. V, p. 48) he gave a list of the bones and brief descriptions of them. They all belonged to one individual, which was about half-grown.

In a list furnished to B. C. L. Wailles by Doctor Leidy (Wailles, Agric. Geol., Mississippi, 1854, p. 286), 4 species of Xenarthra are included among the mammals found fossil in the Pleistocene of Mississippi. These are Megalonyx jeffersonii, M. dissimilis, Mylodon harlani, and Ereptodon priscus. Cope regarded M. dissimilis as the same as M. jeffersonii, and Leidy was disposed to consider his Ereptodon priscus as identical with one of the species of Megalonyx.

A list of the fossil vertebrates found in the vicinity of Natchez will be given on page 392.