Hot Springs Mammoth Site (Pleistocene of the United States)

Where: Fall River County, South Dakota (43.4° N, 103.5° W: paleocoordinates 43.4° N, 103.5° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

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

• "a lense-shaped deposit" ranging from 14 to 21 m in thickness, with fossils occuring in "all the sedimentary phases"

•a radiocarbon date on in situ "bone apatite" of "26,075 +975 -790 B.P." is considered "minimal" although it is from "approximately one half of the fill depth"

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: sinkhole; fine-grained, conglomeratic siltstone

• "a natural trap in the form of a karst depression [i.e., sinkhole] containing a spring-fed pond"
• "The sinkhole fill consists of laminated, fine-grained materials, ranging from clay to coarse sand" derived from "reworking and sorting of decomposed wall rock and terrace gravels, with some cobbles and boulders introduced by wall collapse"

Size class: macrofossils

Collected in 1974-1979, 1983

Collection methods: bulk, salvage, quarrying, sieve,

• "discovered accidentally during... land leveling in the summer of 1974 in preparation for a housing development" and there was extensive quarrying in later seasons as well as recovery of "microvertebrate remains" by "screen wash"

Primary reference: L. D. Agenbroad. 1985. The Hot Springs Mammoth Site, South Dakota: from salvage paleontology to in situ exhibit and research center. Dakoterra 2(2):121-139 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 93333: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 14.01.2010

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Mammalia
 Proboscidea - Elephantidae
Mammuthus columbi Falconer 1857 Columbian mammoth
 Artiodactyla - Tayassuidae
Platygonus sp. Leconte 1848 peccary
 Artiodactyla - Camelidae
Camelops sp. Leidy 1854 camel
 Carnivora - Canidae
Canis lupus Linnaeus 1758 gray wolf
Canis latrans Say 1823 coyote
 Carnivora - Ursidae
Arctodus simus Cope 1879 giant short-faced bear