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

MICHIGAN.

(Map [11].)

1. Three Oaks, Berrien County.—Mr. C. K. Warren, of Three Oaks, has in his possession the upper and lower last molars, right and left, of an elephant which appears to have been found somewhere in the neighborhood of Three Oaks. These are large teeth and seem to the writer to belong to E. primigenius. The left upper tooth is 300 mm. long and 100 mm. wide. There are 22 plates. The tooth is worn back to the fourteenth plate, 170 mm. high. There are only seven plates in a 100–mm. line, but it must be taken into account that the tooth is a large one for the species. The plates are parallel with one another and the base of the tooth is straight. The enamel is thin.

One of the lower teeth has a length of 342 mm. The height at the first unworn plate, about the fourteenth, is 135 mm. On the outer face there are six plates in a 100–mm. line.

Not knowing exactly where these teeth were found or at what depth, not much can be said regarding them. However, the region about Three Oaks is occupied by Wisconsin drift and the animal quite certainly lived during the Late Wisconsin stage.

As shown by the map of mastodons in Michigan (map [8]), at least three specimens of the American mastodon have been found in this county. It is extremely probable that the two species lived together.

2. Eaton Rapids, Eaton County.—In the Michigan Agricultural School, at East Lansing, is a lower jaw (No. 8260) of Elephas primigenius, found at Eaton Rapids, on the Grand River. Dr. A. C. Lane (Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Michigan for 1905, p. 553) says that it was found 2 miles below the town. It was found in 1904 by Charles H. Fry. The jaw contains a tooth on each side, and in front of each is a socket for a missing tooth. Behind the tooth is a cavity in the jaw for a succeeding tooth. The one present is taken to be the first true molar. There are present 13, possibly 14, plates. The length of the tooth is 123 mm., its width 51 mm. The enamel is thin and little crinkled. The jaw is 100 mm. high at the rear of the tooth present.

Eaton Rapids is situated on the Grand River, where the latter breaks through the Charlotte morainic system. In this county there have been found two mastodons, one about Belleview, the other in the vicinity of Olivet.