Santa Isabel Iztapan (Pleistocene of Mexico)

Where: Mexico, Mexico (19.6° N, 99.7° W: paleocoordinates 19.6° N, 99.7° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

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

• in a "65 cm" thick bed "indisputably within a Pleistocene level equivalent to the lower part of the Upper Becerra formation"

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lacustrine; poorly lithified, fine-grained, shelly/skeletal, green, argillaceous sandstone

• a "lake"
• entirely from "A sandy material, fine grained, with a pale greenish color, mixed with some amount of clay and - near the bottom of the excavation - with material of bentonitic aspect and numerous gastropods" also called "the 'green muck' (limo verde)"

•clearly poorly lithified based on photos

Size class: macrofossils

• believed to be a kill site and includes six artifacts: a "Scottsbluff type" projectile point, two scrapers, two flake knives, and a blade

•mostly complete, closely associated and partially articulated skeleton although one femur was "isolated from the rest of the skeleton by more than 2 m" and "most of the skull and tusks had been destroyed in the ditch operation"

Preservation: anthropogenic

Collected by L. Avelayra, M. Maldonado-Koerdell, A. Romano in 1950, 1952

Collection methods: salvage, quarrying,

• apparently reposited in the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia

•discovered by "workers opening an irrigation ditch" in 1950 and excavated by the authors in 1952

Primary reference: L. Aveleyra Arroyo de Anda and M. Maldonado-Koerdell. 1953. Association of artifacts with mammoth in the Valley of Mexico. American Antiquity 18(4):332-340 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: archaeological analysis

PaleoDB collection 93639: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 26.01.2010

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Gastropoda
 Stylommatophora - Succineidae
Succinea sp. Draparnaud 1801 amber snail
 Heterostropha - Physidae
Physa sp. Draparnaud 1801 snail
 Heterostropha - Planorbidae
Helisoma sp. Swainson 1940 snail
 Sorbeoconcha - Hydrobiidae
Paludestrina sp. d'Orbigny 1839 snail
Mammalia
 Proboscidea - Elephantidae
"Mammuthus (Archidiskodon) imperator" = Mammuthus columbi
"Mammuthus (Archidiskodon) imperator" = Mammuthus columbi Falconer 1857 imperial mammoth
Limnaea
  -
Limnaea sp. Lamarck 1799