108 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1388 



cessories rather than essential factors, all 

 grouped around some more fundamental, uni- 

 fying, still undefined phenomenon. 



Theobald Smith 

 Department of Animal Pathology 



OF THE EOCKEPELLER INSTITUTE 



POR Medical Eesearch, 

 Princeton, N. J. 



THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE 

 TRUE MASTODON IN AMERICA 



I have recently published a paper'^ under 

 this title, naming one species Mastodon 

 matthewi from the Lower Pliocene of Snake 

 Creek, Nebraska, and another species Masto- 

 don merriami from what I supposed to be the 

 Middle Pliocene of Nevada, in honor of Dr. 

 William D. Matthew and Dr. John 0. Mer- 

 riam, respectively. 



I have just learned from Dr. Merriam that 

 Mastodon merriami is not, as I supposed, of 

 Pliocene hut of Middle Miocene age, which 

 makes this species all the more important and 

 interesting as the first to reach America. Dr. 

 Merriam writes, June 24, 1921 : 



Tlte locality described by Mr. Hills, namely, that 

 at which G. D. Matheson secured his material, is, 

 however, in the Virgin Valley formation, which 

 is of approximately middle Miocene age, not far 

 from the zone of the MascaJl of the John Day 

 region. The opal mines are in the Virgin Valley 

 formation and lie between the two main forks 

 which unite to form Thousand Creek. These 

 streams are Virgin Creek and Beek Creek. They 

 unite on the west side of the great Rhyolite mass 

 which separates the lower part of the Virgin 

 Valley beds from the areas of the Thousand 

 Creek formation lying to the east. The change 

 in the age of Mastodon merriami suggested by the 

 data given above wiU, I am sure, interest you 

 greatly as this evidently brings the appearance 

 of these Mastodons back to near middle Miocen„'. 



I am greatly surprised and interested by the 

 Middle Miocene appearance of the true masto- 

 dons in America, if the above report by Dr. 

 Merriam is correct, as I have no doubt it is. 

 Middle Miocene age is, in fact, quite consistent 

 with the structure of the superior canine 

 tusks, which bear a broad enamel band on a 



1 Amer. Mus. Novitates, No. 10, June 15, 1921. 



concave outer side, a fact that puzzled me 

 greatly because Dr. Schlesinger describes the 

 Lower Pliocene mastodons of Hungary as 

 bearing an enamel band on a convex outer 

 surface. "We should expect the earlier masto- 

 dons to show just the difference in the curva- 

 ture of their tusks which these two observa- 

 tions would indicate. 



It now seems that the true mastodons may 

 be traced back to the species P alee omasto don 

 headnelli Andrews, living along an ancient 

 river corresponding to the Nile, in company 

 with a primitive long-jawed proboscidean to 

 which Andrews and Beadnell gave the name 

 Phiomia serridens in 1902. This was in Up- 

 per Eocene or Lower Oligocene times. In 

 Lower Miocene times the true mastodons ap- 

 pear in North Africa and reappear in the 

 Middle Miocene of France, although far less 

 abundant than the contemporary species of 

 long-jawed animals named Mastodon angusti- 

 dens by Cuvier, which are descended from 

 Phiomia. The rarity of the true mastodons is 

 attributable to their strictly forest-living hab- 

 its. They occur rarely in the Miocene and 

 Lower Pliocene of France and Switzerland, 

 also in Austria as recently described by Schles- 

 inger of Vienna. 



If the Mastodon merriami of Nevada proves 

 to be of Middle Miocene age, it will demon- 

 strate that these true mastodons came to this 

 country much earlier than we have been led 

 to suppose. The earliest arrivals hitherto re- 

 corded in this country are the Mastodon hrevi- 

 dens and M. proavus of Cope, which hailed 

 respectively from the Middle Miocene of Ore- 

 gon and of Colorado. It is not yet positively 

 known whether these two species are true 

 mastodons or representatives of one of the 

 other phyla. 



Henry Fairfield Osborn 



American Museum op Natural History, 

 June 29, 1921 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



THE SCIENCE CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 

 MISSISSIPPI 



During the academic year 1920-21, the Sci- 

 ence Club of the University of Mississippi, 



