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A Preliminary Report on the Vertebrate Paleontology of the Llano Estacado
A Preliminary Report on the Vertebrate Paleontology of the Llano Estacado Author:Edward Drinker Cope Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3CHAPTER II. THE VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE LOUP FORK BEDS. Abundant remains of Vertebrata were found in the Loup Fork beds north of the South Fork of Red River, east of the eastern esca... more »rpment of the Staked Plains. With the exception of a tortoise, these belong exclusively to Mammalia of the superorder Ungulata. The extreme rarity of Carnivora and the absence of Glires, are noteworthy features of the localities examined. Of seventeen species obtained, fifteen are determinable, as follows: Speciea. Determinable. Testudinata 1 Carnivora 1 Proboscidia 1 1 Diplarthra— Perissodactyla 9 9 Artiodactyla 5 3 17 13 Of the determinable species, two are new to science. All the others are species hitherto found only in beds of the Loup Fork terrane, thus fixing conclusively the age of the Texas bed. Much light is thrown on the structure of many of these species by the new material obtained which is now described in part. It textit{ls evident that the locality at which the fossils were obtained was haunted by droves of three-toed horses and camels, with not a few mastodons. At one place a space of several acres was thickly strewn with bones of these animals; and smaller tracts similarly covered were numerous in the same neighborhood. The animals were of all ages, and one of the most interesting results of our expedition was the obtaining of the bones, skulls, and teeth of young animals with the deciduous dentition well preserved. PROBOSCIDIA. TETRABELODON. Cope. Proceeds. Amer. Philos. Society, 1884. p. 2. American Naturalist, 1889, p. 193. TETRABELODON SERIilDENS ? Cope. American Naturalist, 1889, p. 205, figure 8; textit{Mastodon serrideiis, Cope, 1. c. 1884, p. 524; Plate III, figures 2, 3, I refer to this species with much reserve a last inferior molar, which is for th...« less