A Late Quaternary Herpetofauna 

 from Saltville, Virginia 



J. Alan Holman 



The Museum, Michigan State University, 



East Lansing, Michigan 48824 



AND 



Jerry N. McDonald 

 715 Saratoga Avenue, Newark, Ohio 43055 



ABSTRACT. — The late Quaternary herpetofauna from Saltville, Vir- 

 ginia, consists of at least two salamanders, two anurans, two turtles, 

 and four snakes; all are forms that can be found living in the area 

 today. The fossil herpetofauna originated from three 14 C dated strati- 

 graphic units. Based on the presence of all 10 taxa of the herpetofauna 

 in Units W2 (lower) and W3, it is reasonable to conclude that this 

 fauna has been in place for the last 13,500 to 15,000 years. Because the 

 most northern area where all members of the Saltville herpetofauna 

 may be found living together today is in extreme northeastern Penn- 

 sylvania, the herpetofauna is clearly not a "Boreal" one. Moreover, 

 Boreal temperatures, as we know them today, would not provide 

 enough warm days for the eggs of Chelydra serpentina, Chrysemys 

 picta, or Elaphe cf. E. obsoleta to hatch. 



The late Quaternary fluvial and lentic sediments of the Saltville 

 Valley in Virginia have yielded the remains of large mammals for more 

 than two centuries (Jefferson 1787, Peterson 1917, Boyd 1952, Ray et al. 

 1967, McDonald and Bartlett 1983). Most of these remains were found 

 during construction activities related to agriculture or the production of 

 salt. The first purely scientific excavation in search of late Quaternary 

 vertebrates at this locality was conducted jointly by Virginia Polytechnic 

 Institute (VPI) and the Smithsonian Institution (SI) in 1966 and 1967. 

 In 1978 and 1981 Charles Bartlett, Jr., performed salvage excavations at 

 several locations in the valley for the Town of Saltville, and in October 

 1980 Bartlett and J. McDonald began controlled excavations in the valley. 

 In 1982 McDonald initiated the Saltville Project, a multidisciplinary investi- 

 gation of the late Quaternary history of Saltville Valley that included 

 the collaboration of several specialists from different institutions in 

 eastern North America. Late Quaternary deposits in the Saltville Valley 

 have been shown to span some 27,000 years, including a continuous 

 record for approximately the last 15,000 years (McDonald 1984, 1985a), 

 making this locality unusually useful for the documentation of 



Brimleyana No. 12:85-100, September 1986 85 



