New York State Museum Bulletin 



Entered as second-class matter November 27> 1015, at the Post Office at Albany, N. Y. under 



the act of August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided 



for in section 1103, act of October 3, 1017, authorized July 19, 1918 



Published monthly by The University of the State of New York 



>■ ' 



Nos. 241-242 ALBANY, N. Y. January-February, 1921 



THE MASTODONS, MAMMOTHS AND OTHER PLEIS- 

 TOCENE MAMMALS OF NEW YORK STATE 



BEING A DESCRIPTIVE RECORD OF ALL KNOWN OCCURENCES 



By 

 C. A. Hartnagel and Sherman C. Bishop 



INTRODUCTION 



The preservation of any land mammal as a fossil is an accident; 

 its subsequent discovery frequently one. The many elements 

 contending in the destruction of organisms make preservation of 

 such remains the exception rather than the rule. Regions that 

 are richly populated with fossil remains preserve but a remnant 

 of the legions that formerly existed; regions devoid of remains 

 of any kind may have supported an immense living world. 



Fossil remains of carnivorous land mammals in New York are 

 exceedingly rare. Only the discovery of a fox and two species of 

 bears have been reported. Records of * mastodons and mammoths 

 are more numerous not only because the bones are larger and resist 

 decay longer but because their very size calls attention to them, as 

 something unusual. Remains ' of many smaller Pleistocene mam- 

 mals which did not differ materially from those now living, have 

 doubtless been found but not reported. 



De Kay {New York Fauna, pt I, Mammalia, 1842) noticed at 

 some length occurrences of the mammoth and the mastodon, which 

 will be referred to again in their proper places ; also a "stag" termed 

 Elaphus americanus, and a supposedly fossil horse. 

 Prof. James Hall, in the Boston Journal of Natural History 

 (1846, 5:390), mentioned without discussion the mastodon, mam- 

 moth, Castoroides, deer and elk. C. Hart Merriam's list of the 

 Mammals of | the Adirondack Region, (1886) included records of 

 a horse and mastodon or mammoth. Joseph Leidy's " Synopsis of 

 the Mammalian Remains of North America" (1869) gave accounts 

 of several New York specimens including remains of elk, deer, 

 caribou, horse and ^Castoroides. More recently, Gerrit S. Miller 

 (" Preliminary List of New York Mammals," N. Y. State Mus. 

 Bui. 29. 1899) included the fossil beaver {Castoroides); peccary, 

 horse, mastodon and mammbth. In New York State Museum, 

 Bulletin 19 (1898), F. J. H. Merrill mentioned the mastodon, Cas- 



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