Mississippi Lime and Material Company Plant No. 2: Late/Upper Pleistocene, Illinois
collected by W. McAdams

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Mammalia - Rodentia - Sciuridae
Marmota monax (Linnaeus 1758)
Mammalia - Rodentia - Geomyidae
Geomys bursarius (Shaw 1800)
Mammalia - Rodentia - Castoridae
Castor canadensis Kuhl 1820
Castoroides ohioensis Foster 1838
Mammalia - Perissodactyla - Equidae
Equus sp. Linnaeus 1758
Mammalia - Tayassuidae
Platygonus ? cumberlandensis Gidley 1920
synonym of Platygonus vetus
Mammalia - Cervidae
Cervalces ? roosevelti Hay 1913
synonym of Cervalces latifrons
Rangifer muscatinensis Leidy 1879
synonym of Rangifer tarandus
Sangamona fugitiva Hay 1920
nomen vanum belonging to Cervidae
Mammalia - Bovidae
Symbos promptus Hay 1920
synonym of Bootherium bombifrons
Taurotragus americanus Gidley 1913
recombined as Euceratherium americanum
Mammalia - Carnivora - Ursidae
Ursus americanus Pallas 1780
Mammalia - Megalonychidae
Megalonyx jeffersonii (Desmarest 1822)
Mammalia - Proboscidea - Mammutidae
Mammut americanum (Kerr 1792)
see common names

Geography
Country:United States State/province:Illinois
Coordinates: 38.9° North, 90.2° West (view map)
Paleocoordinates:38.9° North, 90.2° West
Basis of coordinate:based on nearby landmark
Geographic resolution:small collection
Time
Period:Quaternary Epoch:Pleistocene
10 m.y. bin:Cenozoic 6
Key time interval:Late/Upper Pleistocene
Age range of interval:0.12600 - 0.01170 m.y. ago
Stratigraphy
Stratigraphic resolution:bed
Stratigraphy comments: age of loess is thought to be either "Sangamon" or (younger and therefore) "Peorian"
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology:concretionary conglomerate
Lithology description: "In the contact zone between the [glacial, 1-3 feet thick] till and the [reddish] loess" in the local section; the loess has "no notable quantity of sand or suggestion of stratification" while the till is "reddish [and] contains many erratic pebbles of granite, dolerite, greenstone, quartzite, and other Canadian rocks, and also some local rocks"; the glacial till lies immediately over a limestone
Environment:pond
Geology comments: the "loess" is "doubtless aeolian in origin" but the fossils are thought to have been entrapped in "ponds" formed in "a gentle depression at the top of the limestone," which makes sense only if the sequence was glaciation followed by pond formation/fossilization followed by loess deposition
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:body,concretion
Size of fossils:macrofossils
Collection methods and comments
Collection methods:survey of museum collection
Reason for describing collection:biostratigraphic analysis
Museum repositories:USNM
Collectors:W. McAdams
Collection method comments: McAdams collection was made "Some time previous to 1883"
Taxonomic list comments:mammal identifications were made by O. P. Hay (may the buyer beware)
Polygyra prounda pleistocenica Baker (new ssp.) Polygyra multilineata altonensis Baker (n. ssp.) are both found throughout the lower loess overlying the fossiliferous zone
Metadata
Also known as:Alton
Database number:93486
Authorizer:J. Alroy Enterer:J. Alroy
Modifier:M. Uhen Research group:vertebrate
Created:2010-01-19 20:13:55 Last modified:2020-12-09 16:45:36
Access level:the public Released:2010-01-19 20:13:55
Creative Commons license:CC BY
Reference information

Primary reference:

31631. M. M. Leighton. 1921. The Pleistocene succession near Alton, Illinois, and the age of the mammalian fossil fauna. Journal of Geology 29(6):505-514 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]

Secondary references:

74680 A. R. Cahn. 1932. Records and distribution of the fossil Beaver, Castoroides ohioensis. Journal of Mammalogy 13(3):229-241 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen]