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

INDIANA.

(Map [36].)

1. Gibson County.—The type specimen of Mylohyus nasutus was found somewhere in this county. The specimen was first mentioned by Leidy in 1860 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 416), but without other designation than peccary. Leidy wrote that it had been sent to him by Dr. David D. Owen, who informed him that it had been discovered in Gibson County, in digging a well, at a depth of between 30 and 40 feet. No more exact locality has ever been determined. The specimen consisted of the front of the skull only. It was later described by Leidy (Proc. same Academy, 1868, p. 230), under the name Dicotyles nasutus; and in 1869 (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. VII, p. 385, plate XXVIII, figs. 1, 2) was further described and illustrated. The figures referred to have been reproduced by the present writer in 1912 (Geol. Surv. Indiana, vol. XXXIII, p. 607, text-figs. 42, 43), and again in 1914 (Iowa Geol. Surv., vol. XXIII, plate XXVI, figs. 1, 2).

It is unfortunate that Owen and Leidy did not more accurately establish the locality where this jaw was found. In Gibson County there is a considerable variety of geological deposits, even considering only those belonging to the Pleistocene and Recent. The eastern and the southeastern portion lies outside the drift-covered region. A strip along the Wabash is occupied by alluvial deposits belonging to the Recent epoch. Outside of this is another strip covered mostly by Illinoian drift.

The Patoka Quadrangle, described in Folio No. 105 of the U. S. Geological Survey, published in 1904, covers nearly the whole of Gibson County. An examination of this folio shows how complicated are the later geological features of the region. It is fair to suppose that a well from 30 to 40 feet in depth was dug, especially at that time, in the higher parts of the county, where the elevation is somewhere near 500 feet above sea-level. Here such a well would probably go through the rather scattering Wisconsin deposits of various kinds or through the loess referred to the Iowan stage, reaching perhaps the Sangamon; or through later Illinoian or early Sangamon lake deposits and Illinoian glacial accumulations into pre-Illinoian deposits. The folio cited notes (p. [3]) the presence of deposits supposed to belong to the beginning of the Illinoian stage. These contained zones of black muck and other organic materials; and in places were found logs and what were thought by the well-diggers to be “black-oak” leaves. All these might have been of Aftonian age; and in deposits of that time might have been found the jaw of Mylohyus nasutus.

This species has been reported from a number of other localities; but the remains have been of so imperfect character that the identifications may have been erroneous. Professor Cope reported in 1869 (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XI, p. 176) that he had found several molars and canine teeth of this animal in cave breccia in Wythe County, Virginia. The breccia appeared to be very old, and in them were found a species of Megalonyx, Equus complicatus?, Tapirus haysii, Ursus amplidens, and many other extinct species.

Cope in 1899 (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. XI, p. 263) announced this species from the Port Kennedy cave in southeastern Pennsylvania. In this case there were found only a canine and 4 molars; hence not too much reliance must be placed on the identification. A large majority of the numerous species found in the Port Kennedy cave are extinct. Among these are species of Megalonyx, a mylodon, a bear, 2 species of saber-tooth tigers, a tapir, 1 or 2 species of horse, and 3 species of peccaries. One can hardly doubt that the animals belonged to the early part of the Pleistocene. The indications are that the known examples of Mylohyus nasutus belonged to the first half of the Pleistocene; that is, to the Sangamon stage or to the Aftonian.

2. Near Williams, Lawrence County.—In the collection of the University of Indiana are some peccary remains found in Rock Cliff quarry, not far northwest from Williams. These were described by the writer in 1912 (Geol. Surv. Indiana, vol. XXXIII, pp. 596, 605). The remains were secured by Professor J. W. Beede. A part of a lower jaw which contained a first true molar and impressions of the second and third molars was referred to Leidy’s species Tagassu lenis. A large last upper molar (op. cit., p. 605, plate IV, fig. 2) was referred with some doubt to Platygonus vetus.

These remains, together with some bones of one or the other of these species and a carapace of the box-tortoise still living in that region, were inclosed in masses of stalagmite which appear to have pretty completely filled an old cave in the limestone, encountered in quarrying operations. According to Professor Beede, the cave had, when he saw it, been all quarried away except one corner. This was from 20 to 30 feet below the general surface at that place. It was about 100 feet above the present level of White River, about on a level with the highest terrace along that stream. The probabilities are that the peccaries and the box-tortoise belong to one of the earlier Pleistocene interglacial stages. Professor Beede is inclined to believe that the cave was filled during the Illinoian glacial stage by streams carrying in mud and sand and gravel. If this view is correct the inclosed remains would be at least as old as the Yarmouth.

The species Tagassu lenis is closely related to the peccary which now lives in southwestern Texas and Mexico, and it has been regarded as identical with it; but there appear to be reasons why it should be retained under its own name. It was first described from teeth found among materials coming from the phosphate deposits about Charleston, South Carolina. Certainly many of the species found there lived during the early part of the Pleistocene.

It is possible that certain teeth referred by Cope (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1867, p. 155) to the existing peccary belonged to T. lenis; but there is nothing known regarding their exact geological age. Other teeth found in the lead region of Illinois were identified by Wyman as those of the existing peccary. They too may have been those of T. lenis. The writer regards the animals found in the lead crevices as belonging to rather late Pleistocene, possibly to Peorian or Sangamon times. As to the remains found in the cave in Lawrence County it is probable that they date back to the Sangamon stage.

3. Laketon, Wabash County.—In the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Indiana, page 20, Cope and Wortman stated there was in the Survey’s collection the symphyseal portion of the lower jaw and a large part of the left ramus with all the premolar teeth, except the last. This had been found at Laketon, in Wabash County. There were given no further details, and the writer failed to find the specimen in the collection. In the collection of Earlham College, Richmond, are photographs of probably this specimen and of a part of the upper jaw. The latter bone shows 3 premolars and the first molar; the lower jaw presents the symphysis, the right canine, and the 2 anterior premolars. The photographs are labeled as those of Platygonus compressus, determined by Cope, and as made from the Wabash County specimen.

All the region about Laketon is covered with Wisconsin drift or materials derived from it. The peccary found must have lived after the retirement of the border of the glacier beyond the Wabash River. It was probably long after this and when the climate was perhaps warmer than it is now.