Point-of-the-Mountain (Pleistocene of the United States)

Also known as BYU locality number 802; Geneva Rock Products Company Quarry; PM

Where: Salt Lake County, Utah (40.5° N, 111.9° W: paleocoordinates 40.5° N, 111.9° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Late/Upper Pleistocene (0.1 - 0.0 Ma)

• site is "bracked between approximately 22 and 13 ka based on lake level ages previously derived"

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lacustrine - large; ferruginous, sandy siltstone

• "either a deeper water hemipelagic deposit that developed slightly basin-ward of the prograding spit, or possibly a paleosol" at the margin of Lake Bonneville
• stratum yielding the sloth (but not necessarily other taxa) is "an oxidized [= ferruginous], poorly sorted, sandy siltstone bed"

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by J. Miller, R. Trotter in 1996

Collection methods: salvage, quarrying,

• Brigham Young University collection

•sloth was found "approximately 10 m below the present land surface" during commercial quarrying

Primary reference: H. G. McDonald, W. E. Miller, and T. H. Morris. 2001. Taphonomy and significance of Jefferson's ground sloth (Xenarthra: Megalonychidae) from Utah. Western North American Naturalist 61(1):64-77 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 93266: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 11.01.2010

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Mammalia
 Proboscidea - Elephantidae
Mammuthus sp.
Mammuthus sp. Brookes 1828 mammoth
 Megatherioidea - Megalonychidae
Megalonyx jeffersonii
Megalonyx jeffersonii Desmarest 1822 Jefferson's ground sloth
 Perissodactyla - Equidae
Equus sp.
Equus sp. Linnaeus 1758 horse
 Artiodactyla - Cervidae
Odocoileus sp.
Odocoileus sp. Rafinesque 1832 New World deer
 Artiodactyla - Bovidae
Bison sp., Bootherium sp.
Bison sp. Hamilton-Smith 1827 bison
Bootherium sp. Harlan 1825 antelope
 Artiodactyla - Camelidae
Camelops sp.
Camelops sp. Leidy 1854 camel