FINDS OF PLEISTOCENE CAMELIDÆ IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA.
PENNSYLVANIA.
1. It is not certain that any fossil camel remains have ever been found in Pennsylvania. In 1899 (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2, vol. XI, p. 264, plate XXI, figs. 4, 4a) Cope described Teleopternus orientalis and referred it to the Camelidæ. This was found in the Port Kennedy cave, and whatever its relationships it belongs to the early Pleistocene. Matthew (Osborn, Age of Mamm., p. 469) suggested that its affinities might be with the musk-oxen.
FLORIDA.
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.
TENNESSEE.
1. Nashville, Davidson County.—From Mr. W. E. Myer, of Nashville, the writer has received for examination a right calcaneum of an undetermined species of camel, belonging probably to the genus Camelops. This was found near Nashville, in the bank of Cumberland River. At the same locality were found part of a tooth of a young mastodon, a tooth of Equus leidyi, a fragment of a femur of a probably larger horse, an antler of a young deer, a tooth of Mylodon, and some fragments of turtle bones. However, the horse remains and the antler are said to have been lying in a layer of gravel, while the camel and mastodon were in a bed of sand just above the gravel. Over these beds are nearly 30 feet of gravel.
The total length of the calcaneum is 138 mm., the greatest height 67 mm., and the thickness at the rear of the articular surface for the astragalus, 45 mm. From the rear end to the surface for the astragalus is 85 mm. The surface for union with the cuboid is 19 mm. wide, considerably narrower than in the dromedary and in an astragalus from Denver, Colorado, which apparently belongs to Camelops huerfanensis. The outer face of the bone is considerably less concave than in either of the two species referred to. The tuberosity is relatively thicker at the middle of its length than is either of the species mentioned; its height at its middle is relatively less than in the Denver specimen. It is believed that the age of the beds containing these fossils is about that of the Aftonian interglacial.