The Pleistocene of North America / and its vertebrated animals from the states east of the Mississippi River and from the Canadian provinces east of longitude 95°

by Oliver Perry Hay

FLORIDA.

(Map [21].)

1. Archer, Alachua County.—In 1886 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1886, p. 12), Dr. Joseph Leidy briefly described three species of the genus Procamelus from materials collected near Archer by Dr. W. H. Dall. The teeth and bones had been found in what has been called the Alachua clays, and were associated with a considerable number of species of vertebrates. The list will be found on page [375], where the Pleistocene geology is considered. The three species of camels were called Auchenia major, A. minor, and A. minimus. They are now referred to the genus Procamelus. In 1896 they were (Trans. Wagner Free Inst. Sci., vol. IV, pp. VII-XIV, 15–61, with plates) described in more detail and illustrated by Leidy and Lucas. The error of calling P. minor by the name P. medius, first introduced by Cope, was followed in the paper just mentioned; and some authors have continued this practice. Dr. W. H. Dall included these camels in his list (Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv. No. 84, p. 129). Authors have in general referred to the Tertiary the deposit which furnished these camels; the present writer believes that the Alachua beds belong to the first glacial stage. The matter is further discussed on pages [376] to [378].

2. Williston, Levy County.—In 1892 (Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 84, p. 129), Dr. W. H. Dall published a list, furnished by Joseph Leidy, of the vertebrate fossils found at what was then known as Mixon’s bone-bed. The species, with some additions, are listed on page [375]. Among others is Procamelus major. The species were found in the Alachua clays, and these clays are referred by Sellards to the Upper Miocene or Lower Pliocene.

3. Ocala, Marion County.—In 1889 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1889, p. 31; Trans. Wagner Free Inst. Sci., vol. II, pp. 13–17), Leidy mentioned the discovery of a tooth of a camel, regarded by him as belonging to Procamelus, in a limestone quarry at Ocala. With it were described the saber-tooth tiger Machairodus floridanus. Teeth were found also of a horse which is referred to Equus leidyi. A list of the species found at this locality is on page [378]. In the Philadelphia Academy paper Leidy called the camel Auchenia minor. In the next paper cited he regarded it as A. minimus.

4. Dunnellon, Marion County.—In 1916 (8th Ann. Rep. Florida Geol. Surv., pp. 94, 104), Dr. Sellards presented a list of the species of vertebrates discovered in the Dunnellon formation at Dunnellon and vicinity. Among the species is the camel Procamelus minor. This, however, he did not include among the Pleistocene animals.

Undetermined teeth of a camel are mentioned by Sellards as found in the phosphate mines at Dunnellon (5th Ann. Rep. Fla. Geol. Surv., p. 58).

5. Hernando, Citrus County.—Sellards (5th Ann. Rep. Florida Geol. Surv., p. 58) reported a discovery of teeth of an undetermined species of camel in a phosphate mine at Hernando. These probably are of the genus Procamelus.

6. Vero, St. Lucie County.—Some remains of a camel have been found in the stratum at Vero known as No. 2, the one immediately overlying the bed of marine marl. Sellards (8th Rep., p. 149) states there had been secured up to that time two upper cheek-teeth, a distal end of a cannon-bone, and a phalanx. The latter, a hinder first phalanx, is figured (plate XXX, fig. 5). It resembles considerably the bone figured by Leidy and Lucas (Trans. Wagner Free Inst., vol. IV, plate XVIII, fig. 8), but it presents important differences.

The anterior phalange figured by Leidy and Lucas is 85 mm. long; a hinder phalange of the same animal would have been shorter. The hinder phalange found at Vero is 104 mm. long. The probability is that its owner was an animal considerably larger than Leidy’s Procamelus minimus. The phalanx referred by Leidy and Lucas to Procamelus medius (=P. minor) has exactly the length of that of P. minimus, but is a much stouter bone, the side-to-side diameter at the middle of the length being one-half greater. The Vero camel appears, therefore, to be distinct from any of the Pliocene camels of Florida. It probably belongs to the genus Camelops.