464 THE AGE OF MAMMALS 



removing the bones of the largest of these skeletons an arrowhead was 

 discovered underneath the right scapula, imbedded in the matrix, but 

 touching the bone itself. Williston is entirely satisfied of the authenticity 

 of this discovery. The evidence that man was contemporaneous with the 

 extinct species of bison (see p. 497) is of the greatest importance. 



The fauna of the Kansas Pleistocene as summed up by Williston (1897) ^ 

 was in part as follows: 



Mastodon americanus Platygonus compressus 



Elephas columbi Camelops kansanus 



Elephas (?) imperator Megalonyx leidyi 



Bison occidentalis Mylodon 



Bison alleni Canis lupus 



Bison bison Canis (?) latrans 



Alces (f) sp. Geomys bursarius 

 Equus, several species 



The simultaneous death of small herds of peccaries as well as of bison 

 points to the existence of these animals during severe conditions of climate 

 subject either to violent winter storms, or to the prevalence of great dust 

 clouds. A high, cold wind storm, at very low temperatures, carrying with 

 it great volumes of dust (loess), would -account for the death and rapid 

 burial of small herds of animals seeking shelter in some gully. 



2. Mid-Pleistocene Mammals of the Forested Regions. The 



Second Fauna 



This is a temperate and south temperate, chiefly forest and meadow 

 fauna, indicating very favorable conditions of life. Herbivorous and car- 

 nivorous mammals. This fauna is chiefly known in mid-Pleistocene times. 



The second great faunal group of North America is the Megalonyx 

 Fauna, named by Cope after the great sloth which predominated and was 

 widely distributed from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The most important 

 question is that discussed above (pp. 453, 454), whether this is a forest fauna 

 contemporaneous with the distinctive plains fauna of the Equus Zone. The 

 forest types and plains types of North America are very different to-day and 

 were undoubtedly very different in Pleistocene times. Our present con- 

 clusion is that there are indications that the Megalonyx fauna is partly 

 contemporaneous with, partly successive to, the plains fauna of the Equus 

 Zone in the localities above described. 



This is a rich and magnificent fauna, by no means dwarfed or impov- 

 erished. It is everywhere distinguished by the presence of Megalonyx, by 

 the absence of arctic, tundra, and steppe types. It is distinctively the 



^ Williston, S. W., The Pleistocene of Kansas. Univ. Geol. Surv. Kansas, Vol. II, 1897, 

 pp. 299-308. 



