

MASTODONS, MAMMOTHS AND OTHER PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS 85 



Platygonus com press us LeConte Fossil Peccary 



An account of the first discovery of remains of Platygonus 

 compressus is given by John L. Le Conte, 60 who described 

 the species from portions of a skeleton found in the lead regions 

 of Illinois. In New York State parts of four individuals have been 

 found, two from a gravel bank a few miles from Rochester, the 

 others from a gravel bed on the farm of James Russell near Gaines- 

 ville, Wyoming county, in 1912. 



The Rochester remains are in the possession of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the following account is taken 

 from that of Leidy : 61 " Recently the writer procured through pur- 

 chase for the Academy of Nat. Sci. of Philadelphia ... a 

 collection of remarkably well-preserved remains of two adult indi- 

 viduals of Platygonus compressus which were found 

 in making a railway excavation in a gravel bank a few miles 

 from Rochester. Of one individual there is the greater part of 

 the skeleton, consisting of the nearly perfect skull with the 

 teeth . . . 21 vertebrae, the sacrum, the long bones of both 

 pairs of limbs, the imperfect scapulae, an innominatum, and part 

 of a second, both pairs of principal metacarpals, one pair of prin- 

 cipal metatarsals, an astragalus, a calcaneum, portions of a sternum 

 and fragments of three ribs. Of the second individual there is a 

 less perfect skull with the upper teeth but without the mandible." 

 The above account is also quoted by G. S. Miller. 62 



" The material from Gainesville belongs to two individuals, and 

 consists of two skulls, remains of five ribs, five vertebrae, two 

 scapulae, one left and one right, two metacarpals, one innominate, 

 one ilium, one radius, and ulna and two tibias. Of the two skulls, 

 one is complete; in the other the lower jaw is missing. The com- 

 plete one belongs to an older individual, and the incomplete one to 

 a younger, though grown specimen, which still has the temporary 

 molar teeth " 6S (plates 22, 23). 



The remains were purchased for the State Museum in 19 14 from 

 F. P. Barrett of Gainesville. 



The position of the hill or drumlin from which the bones were 

 obtained, is shown on the Portage topographic map by a small con- 

 tour circle one-third of a mile northwest of Gainesville. The larger 

 features of the hill are shown on the sketch map (plate 24). 



""Arner. Jour. Sci., ser. 2, 1848, 5:102-3. 



61 Wagner Free Inst, of Bhila., Tran. 1889, 2:41-150, pi. 8, fig. 1. 



92 N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 29, 1899, P- 372. 



63 Clarke, N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 187, 1916, p. 34- 



