A Review of the Osteology and Paleontology of Turkeys
Inglis 1A
University of Florida Vertebrate Fossil Locality CI001
Location
Inglis 1A is located about 1.five miles (2.5 km) south of the town of Inglis, on the due north bank of the Cross Florida Clomp Canal west of Us Highway 98, Citrus County, Florida. 29.01º N; 82.69º W.
Age
- Early Pleistocene Epoch; latest Blancan state mammal historic period
- i.9-1.6 one thousand thousand years ago
Basis of Age
An early Pleistocene, late Blancan historic period is confirmed by the presence of the sloth Megalonyx leptostomus, the hyena Chasmaporthetes ossifragus, the mustelid Trigonictis macrodon, the peccary Platygonus bicalcaratus, the pronghorn Capromeryx arizonensis, the muskrat Ondatra idahoensis, and many others. Inglis 1A falls within the latest part of the belatedly Blancan based on the co-occurrence of Sigmodon curtisi, Peromyscus sarmocophinus, and Spilogale putorius (Hulbert, 2010). The mammalian brute is generally regarded as a close correlate of that from Curtis Ranch in Arizona, whose historic period is well established by magnetostratigraphy and radioisotopic geochronology.
Geology
Inglis 1A consisted from bottom to summit of a basal conglomerate unit, thin bed of clay, lower sand unit, a 2d thin clay bed, upper sand unit, and a cemented quartz sandstone (Klein, 1971). The entire sequence varied from 3 to four m thick, with the two sands comprising the majority of the deposit. The two sand units also produced the majority of the fossils. The bottom of the deposit is slight below mod sea level. As no marine species were plant in the eolith (except those clearly reworked from the surrounding limestone walls of the sinkhole), deposition occurred at a time when the area was inland from the coast. As this function of Florida has been uplifted by nearly fourscore meters in the last ane.7 million years (Adams et al., 2010), global sea level was over 80 meters (260 feet) lower than it is now when the Inglis 1A sinkhole formed, placing it within a glacial period.
Depositional Environment
The site was originally a sinkhole with an opening of about 10 × 20 m. The habitat surrounding the sinkhole at the fourth dimension of deposition included longleaf pine flatwoods and pine-oak scrub based on ecological interpretation of the snakes, lizards, and birds (Meylan, 1982; Emslie, 1998). Cooler summertime temperatures than today is indicated by the presence of bandbox pollen in the sediments (Emslie, 1998), although abundant large tortoises and armadillos imply that winters were not significantly colder than today.
Fossils
Inglis 1A was a very rich deposit, producing about 18,000 identifiable fossils representing at least 161 species. The total is the 2d highest for whatsoever single fossil site in the state of Florida, trailing only Leisey Shell Pit 1A. All 4 main terrestrial vertebrate groups, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, are abundant, and both pocket-size and large species are nowadays. All recovered fossils were isolated finds; there were no associated or articulated skeletons. Freshwater aquatic and semiaquatic species are relatively uncommon compared to purely terrestrial species, and marine species are absent.
Excavation History and Methods
The south wall of the sediment-filled sinkhole called Inglis 1A was removed during the excavation in the mid-1960s of the western portion of the Cross Florida Clomp Canal. This massive federal projection was to allow commercial barge traffic betwixt the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of Florida (Noll and Tegeder, 2009). This projection was somewhen stopped over environmental objections, but not earlier the western stretch of the culvert, from Lake Rousseau to the Gulf of United mexican states, was completed. Fossils were discovered eroding out the remaining sediment in the sinkhole by UF paleontology graduate students Jean Klein and Robert Martin in 1967. Sporadic, pocket-size-scale collecting by FLMNH crews occurred at the site from 1967 to 1973. A major excavation lead past museum curator David Webb began in December 1973 and lasted through March 1974, with approximately 2000 person-hours invested in the work (S. D. Webb field notebook). Approximately 300 cubic meters of the fossiliferous sand layers were excavated; most of this was screenwashed on-site while the remainder was taken to the museum on the UF campus where it could exist done through screens with smaller openings. At the end of this excavation, most all of the fossil-bearing sediments filling the sinkhole had been removed. Over the next ii decades a relatively small number of specimens were found by amateur collectors, some of which were afterwards donated to the museum. A coiffure comprised of students from Western State Higher atomic number 82 past Dr. Steven Emslie and Steve and Suzan Hutchens collected the last major accumulation of fossils from Inglis 1A in April 1996, although virtually of their efforts were focused on the nearby Inglis 1C locality.
Give-and-take
Inglis 1A certainly ranks in the tiptop ten Florida vertebrate fossils sites equally ranked by scientific significance. This is based on more than than simply its incredibly rich fauna and large samples of many species. 11 new species were described on the basis of specimens from Inglis 1A: the toad Bufo defensor; the skink Plestiodon carri, the snake Regina intermedia; the eagle Aquila bivia; the owl Glaucidium explorator; the rabbit Sylvilagus webbi; the pocket gopher Orthogeomys propinetis; the porcupine Erethizon kleini; the fox Urocyon citrinus; the raccoon Procyon megalokolos, and the canid Theriodictis? floridanus. Every bit noted in the reviews of the site's snakes and lizards past Meylan (1982) and birds past Emslie (1998), Inglis 1A provides the oldest known records of many of today's common native Florida animals. The big number of species that dispersed from South America found in the Inglis 1A local fauna started David Webb'south involvement in the Great American Biotic Interchange, a topic upon which he wrote many significant papers during his long career (e.g., Webb, 1976; Marshall et al., 1982; Webb, 1991; Webb, 2006). Specimens from Inglis 1A formed a major component if not the primarily study material for theses and dissertations of several generations of graduate students both at the University of Florida and elsewhere. Published versions of these include Steadman (1980), Frazier (1981), Meylan (1982), Wilkins (1984), Meachen (2005), and Emmert and Short (2018). Specimens from Inglis 1A have recently been extensively used in analyses of stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen from tooth enamel to determine ancient climates and diets (DeSantis et al., 2009; Yann et al., 2013; Yann and DeSantis, 2014; Feranec and DeSantis, 2014).
It is worth noting most references written before 2005 (and a few afterwards) gave the age of Inglis 1A as early Irvingtonian and not latest Blancan as stated above. This does non hateful that the relative age of the site has changed. Instead, in 2005, Bell et al. revised the purlieus betwixt the Blancan and Irvingtonian state mammal ages, moving it from nearly 2 meg years agone to about 1.6 million years ago. Thus, sites in that interval were transferred from the Irvingtonian land mammal age to the Blancan land mammal age, although their geologic historic period remained the same.
Sources
- Original Author: Richard C. Hulbert Jr.
- Original Completion Date: April 3, 2015
- Editor(s) Name(southward): Natali Valdes
- Concluding Updated: February 17, 2022
This fabric is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation nether Grant Number CSBR 1203222, Jonathan Bloch, Principal Investigator. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(south) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Copyright © Florida Museum of Natural History, Academy of Florida
Source: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-vertebrate-fossils/sites/inglis-1a/
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