On the geological position of the Castoroides ohioensis / by James Hall ; also a description of the cranium of the same, by Jeffries Wyman.

  • Hall, James, 1811-1898.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the geological position of the Castoroides ohioensis / by James Hall ; also a description of the cranium of the same, by Jeffries Wyman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    bonaceous mud,” which was evidently a quiet deposition in the shallow basin, made long after the coarser materials at the bottom had been deposited. At the same locality, (two miles north of Nashport, between the Muskingum and Licking val- leys, on Wakitomika creek,) were found also the bones of a ruminant animal, at the depth of eight feet from the surface. This was in all probability coexistent with the animal in ques- tion and the mastodon. The discovery of this relic has added a very interesting species to the ancient Fauna of the state of New York, of which we before possessed only the remains of the mastodon, the elephant, and possibly a deer, a jawbone and teeth of this last animal having been found in a sw'amp, with the bones of the mastodon, in Greenville, Greene county. New York. Although attaching little importance to the discovery of w'ood gnawed by beavers in these swamps, I may notice, in connection with the present example by General Adams, the following: “ Mr. Williams, one of the assistant engineers, has informed me, that at the summit level of the Genesee Valley Canal, at New Hudson, four miles from Cuba, several deers’ horns and the horn of an elk, [Elaphus canadensis,] were found twelve feet below the surface, in a muck deposit. In the same situ- ation, a piece of wood gnawed by beavers was also found. These are all the remains of existing animals, but their posi- tion is the same as that in which the remains of the mastodon are found.” ' From the few facts which have come to our notice, we are induced to believe that the geographical distribution of this animal must have been very extended ; for its remains have been discovered in New York, in Ohio, and, as we have been recently informed, in the neighborhood of Natchez. II. ANATOMICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CRANIUM. Among the fossil remains of extinct Mammalia heretofore ‘ Geological Report, Fourth District, New York, p. 367, note.