DESCRIPTION OF VERTEBRATE FOSSILS. 



By Prof. JOSEPH LEIDY. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.* 



The interesting collection of remains of vertebrated animals, which form the subject of 

 the following pages, with few exceptions, have been submitted to the inspection of the 

 author, by Prof. F. S. Holmes and Capt. A. H. Bowman, U. S. A. The greater part of 

 the fossils were obtained by these gentlemen from the shores of the Ashley river, or its 

 vicinity, about ten miles above Charleston. The country, in the locality indicated, exhibits 

 a base of whitish Eocene marl, containing remains of cetaceans, and of sharks, rays, and 

 other fishes, together with fossil mollusks and zoophytes, which have formed part of the 

 material of the valuable researches of Prof. Holmes. 



Above the Eocene formation there is a stratum of Post-Pleiocene marl, about one foot 

 in thickness, overlaid with about three feet of sand and earth mould. The Post-Pleiocene 

 deposit contains quantities of irregular, water-worn fragments of the Eocene marl-rock 

 from beneath, mingled with sand, blackened pebbles, water-rolled fragments of bones, and 

 other more perfect remains of fishes, reptiles, and mammals, which belong to the Post- 

 Pleiocene period, or have been derived from the underlying Eocene formation. 



On the Ashley river, where the Post-Pleiocene and Eocene formations are exposed, 

 fossils and pebbles are washed from their bed, and form part of the shingle of the shore, 

 and here become mingled with the remains of recent indigenous and domestic animals, 

 together with objects of human art. From these circumstances, it is sometimes difficult 

 to determine to what particular geological formation or period, whether Eocene, Post- 

 Pleiocene, or Recent, the fossils collected on the Ashley shores, are to be referred. The 

 difficulty is especially great in regard to the remains of fishes, less so with the reptiles and 

 cetaceans, and least so with the other mammalian fossils. 



Of those vertebrate remains actually obtained in excavations of the Post-Pleiocene and 

 Eocene formations, more confidence is felt in determining the actual age to which they 

 belong. 



* For notes on the geological formations in which the vertebrate fossils described in this paper were 

 discovered, see Appendix to this volume. — (F. S. Holmes.) 

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