Edisto Island Fossil Vertebrates 
11 
Remarks. — The two humeri are large, elongate, and do not cpmpare 
well with available material of Alligator or Crocodylus acutus. The 
specimens are referred to Gavialosuchus; however, the limited knowledge 
of Gavialosuchus postcranial material prevents conclusive determination. 
Gavialosuchus has been reported from the late Miocene to early 
Pliocene of Florida (Sellards 1915; Mook 1921; Auffenberg 1954, 1957). 
Auffenberg (1957) also noted two occurrences of Gavialosuchus from 
South Carolina: a partial skull (ChM. 13745) from near Lambs, 
Charleston County, and one dorsal plate (ChM. 35. 208. 176) from Edisto 
Beach. He suggested that the Edisto Island specimen is probably of 
Miocene age. The two specimens reported here may also represent 
Miocene or Pliocene components of a predominantly Pleistocene assem- 
blage; or, it is possible the genus had a more extensive geologic range 
than has previously been reported. In the light of present knowledge of 
the geology of the region between Edisto Island and Charleston, a 
Miocene age for these specimens seems unlikely. Richards et al. (1971) 
reported Late Pleistocene mollusks from depths of 40 to 50 feet below the 
surface on Wadmalaw Island, John’s Island, and James Island and con- 
cluded that they were of Sangamonian age. The Sangamonian deposits 
unconformably overlie the Oligocene member of the Cooper Formation. 
Offshore they are overlain by sediments deposited during regression in 
Wisconsinian time. Thus, there is no immediate source for fossils of 
Miocene age in the vicinity of Edisto Island. Reworked Miocene fossils 
may well occur at the base of the Pleistocene in this area as they do at cer- 
tain places farther inland, but it is difficult to see how such material could 
be reworked upward through more than 50 feet of sediment. A 
gavialosuchid recorded from the Pleistocene of Japan (Tadao 1969) lends 
some credence to the possiblity that the Edisto specimen is Pleistocene in 
age. 
Class Mammalia 
Order Edentata 
Family Dasypodidae 
Dasypus bellus (Simpson) — beautiful armadillo 
Material. — ChM.PV2705, dermal scute. 
Remarks. — Dasypus bellus has been reported from as far west as Texas 
(Slaughter 1959) and north to Missouri, Tennessee and West Virginia 
(Guilday and McCrady 1966; Guilday et al. 1978). Localities include 
Ladds Quarry in northwest Georgia (Ray 1967). The earliest report of D. 
bellus is from the Blancan of Florida (Robertson 1976), but the species 
does not appear in the fossil record elsewhere until the Wisconsinian. See 
Table 2 for measurements. 
