B. S. Lull — Fauna of the Dallas Sand Pits. 159 



Aet. Xl.— Fauna of the Dallas Sand Pits; by Richaed 



SwANN Lull. 



One of the characteristic features around Dallas, 

 Texas, is the sand pits opened in the remnants of ancient 

 flood plains on either side of the valley of the Trinity 

 Eiver. Several of these have been operated for many 

 years, and in addition to the sand and gravel they have 

 yielded as a by-product an interesting Pleistocene 

 fauna. This is as yet incompletely known, largely 

 through lack of appreciation, as the material has been 

 often cast aside on the dumps to be destroyed by weather- 

 ing. Professor Ellis W. Shuler, of the Southern Meth- 

 odist University, has, however, with a high realization of 

 their value, endeavored to save such specimens as have 

 lately come to light, and to him I am indebted for the 

 privilege of description. 



There have thus far been recorded, since the first speci- 

 men was noted in 1887, the skulls of no fewer than thir- 

 teen elephants, one of which, bearing splendid tusks, 

 although with the cranium largely restored, was on exhi- 

 bition in the old Peabody Museum at Yale (Cat. No. 

 10028, Y.P.M., Shuler 1918, pi. 12). This and other 

 specimens have been identified as Elephas imperator. In 

 addition, Shuler^ lists: ^' Bones of Equus scotti, the 

 Texas horse; an ancient bison, species undetermined; 

 bones of smaller animals, as yet undetermined ; and bony 

 scutes from the skin of the giant sloth. '^ *^Most of the 

 specimens," he goes on to say, ^'are found in the sand 

 pits just underneath the covering of clay or near the base 

 of the pit." The sand pits of East Dallas are 50 feet 

 above the Trinity. The date of deposition of these sand 

 pits may be taken as Pleistocene . . . , since they are the 

 highest river deposits in which fossils of Pleistocene 

 mammals have been found. . . . Fossils are found 

 occasionally in the lower sand and gravel pits, but such 

 specimens show the effects of transportation by stream 

 action. ' ^ 



A section of the Lagow sand pit. East Dallas, whence 

 the present consignment of fossils has come, is thus 

 described by Professor Shuler (letter of March 3) : 



* E. W. Shuler, Univ. Texas, Bull. 1818, 26, 28, 1918. 



