Turtles (Reptilia: Testudines) Of The Ardis Local Fauna Late 

 Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) Of South Carolina 



Curtis C Bentley and James L. Knight 



South Carolina State Museum, 301 Gervais Street, 



P.O. Box 100107 



Columbia, South Carolina 29202-3107 



ABSTRACT- The Ardis local fauna (late Pleistocene) was collected from 

 a group of interconnecting sediment-filled solution cavities, located in 

 the Giant Cement Quarry near Harleyville, Dorchester County, South 

 Carolina. Fossil material from the lowermost levels and the extreme 

 upper layer of the deposit have been radiocarbon dated at 18,940 ± 760 

 and 18,530 ± 725 y.b.p., respectively. These dates are considered con- 

 temporaneous within present resolution. Approximately ninety verte- 

 brate taxa were collected from the site. Fourteen were species of turtles, 

 including eight not previously reported from the Pleistocene of South 

 Carolina. Among these is the southeasternmost occurrence of Emy- 

 doidea blandingii. This record, in conjunction with other vertebrate fos- 

 sils from the site, suggests a north-south dispersal route of species along 

 the Atlantic Coastal Plain during interglacial-glacial transitions. Geo- 

 graphically isolated eastern and western populations of Emydoidea 

 blandingii may have existed during the maximum advance of the Lau- 

 rentide ice sheet. Unusually complete fossils of large box turtles recov- 

 ered from the site corroborate the previously suggested synonymy of the 

 extinct Terrapene Carolina putnami with T c. major. The fossil turtle 

 community of the Ardis local fauna has no modern analogue. Like the 

 Ardis mammals, it comprises a "disharmonious" fauna which suggests 

 that, during the height of the Wisconsinan glaciation, the region experi- 

 enced a more equable climate than that of today . 



The Ardis local fauna has yielded approximately 90 species of late 

 Pleistocene fossil vertebrates from the Coastal Plain of South Carolina, includ- 

 ing a substantial mammalian (Bentley et al. 1994), avian, reptilian, amphibian, 

 and fish faunas currently under study. We present data on the Ardis turtle col- 

 lection (Appendix I), the largest Rancholabrean fauna reported from the state. 

 Dobie and Jackson (1979) and Roth and Laerm (1980) reported fossils of late 

 Pleistocene age from Edisto Island, the only other Pleistocene fossil turtle fauna 

 from South Carolina described to date. Among the Edisto Island fauna were ten 



