Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:32:18.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Biota Associated with Matuyama-Age Sediments in West-Central Illinois

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Barry B. Miller ,
Russell W. Graham ,
Alan V. Morgan ,
Norton G. Miller ,
William D. McCoy ,
Donald F. Palmer ,
Alison J. Smith  and
J. J. Pilny
Barry B. Miller
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242
Russell W. Graham
Affiliation:
Research and Collections Center, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois 62703
Alan V. Morgan
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada
Norton G. Miller
Affiliation:
Biological Survey, New York State Museum, Albany, New York 12230
William D. McCoy
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geography, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003
Donald F. Palmer
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242
Alison J. Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242
J. J. Pilny
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A fossil assemblage containing molluscs, mammals, insects, ostracodes, and plants has been recovered from a silt-filled depression near Lima, in west-central Illinois. The reversed remanent magnetic signature of the sediments and the temporal ranges of two mammals, Microtus paroperarius and Lasiopodomys deceitensis, constrain the age of the assemblage to between 730,000 and 830,000 yr B.P. The extent of isoleucine epimerization in the molluscan shell is consistent with this age interpretation. The fauna includes at least 43 taxa of beetles from 11 families, 35 nominal species of molluscs, and two genera of ostracodes. The mammals include two shrews, three rodents, and a rabbit. The plant macrofossils (no pollen recovered) include 25 species of seed plants and four kinds of terrestrial or wetland mosses. Most of the plant species identified still occur in the upper Midwest, although a few of the taxa are found mainly to the north of the site. The fauna is characterized by an almost total absence of true aquatic taxa. The association of both boreal and thermophilous faunal and floral elements suggest that summer temperatures were not greatly different from present ones, but cooler, moist areas must have been available to support the boreal elements. Local conditions were probably similar to those now found in northeastern Iowa, where rains blocks, fissures, and joints in carbonate bedrock serve as traps for debris accumulations, provide shade, and are kept cool and moist during the hot summer months by cold-air drainage and groundwater seepage. Summer mean temperature in these microhabitats was probably between 18 and 20°C, similar to temperatures that now occur near the northern hardwood spruce-fir transition in the eastern United States.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , May 1994 , pp. 350 - 365
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ashworth, A. C., and Schwert, D. P. (1992). The Johns Lake site, a late Quaternary fossil beetle (Coleoptera) assemblage from the Missouri Coteau of North Dakota. North Dakota Geological Survey Miscellaneous Series 76, 257–265.Google Scholar
Ashworth, A. C. Schwert, D. P. Watts, W. A., and Wright, H. E. (1981). Plant and insect fossils at Norwood in south-central Minnesota: A record of late glacial succession. Quaternary Research 16, 66–79.Google Scholar
Banfield, A. W. F. (1974). “The Mammals of Canada.” Univ. of Toronto Press, Toronto.Google Scholar
Bocher, J. (1989). Boreal insects in northernmost Greenland: Palaeoentomological evidence from Kap Kobenhavn Formation (PlioPleistocene), Peary Land. Fauna norvegica (Series B) 36, 37–43.Google Scholar
Bright, D. E. (1976). The insects and arachnids of Canada. II. The bark beetles of Canada and Alaska. Coleoptera: Scolytidae. Agriculture Canada Publication 1576.Google Scholar
Burch, J. B., and Jung, Y. (1988). Land snails of the University of Michigan Biological Station area. Walkerana 3, 1–177.Google Scholar
Campbell, J. M. (1973). A revision of the genus Tachinus (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) of North and Central America. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 90.Google Scholar
Campbell, J. M. (1982). A revision of the North American Omaliinae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) 3. The genus Acidota Stephens. Canadian Entomologist 114, 1003–1029.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, J. M. (1988). New species and records of North American Tachinus Gravenhorst (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae). Canadian Entomologist 120, 231–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, P. U. Nelson, A. R. McCoy, W. D. Miller, B. B., and Barnes, D. K. (1989). Quaternary Aminostratigraphy of Mississippi Valley Loess. Geological Society of America Bulletin 101, 918–926.Google Scholar
Clark, P. U. McCoy, W. D. Oches, E. A. Nelson, A. R., and Miller, B. B. (1990). Quaternary Aminostratigraphy of Mississippi Valley loess: Reply. Geological Society of America Bulletin 102, 1136–1138.Google Scholar
Clarke, A. H. (1981). “The Freshwater Molluscs of Canada.” National Museum of Natural Sciences National Museum of Canada, Ottawa.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crum, H. A., and Anderson, L. E. (1981). “Mosses of Eastern North America.” Columbia Univ. Press, New York.Google Scholar
Dethier, D. D., and McCoy, W. D. (1993). Aminostratigraphic relations and age of Quaternary deposits, northern Espanola Basin, New Mexico. Quaternary Research 39, 222–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dundee, D. S. (1957). Aspects of the biology of Pomatiopsis lapidaria (Say) (Mollusca:Gastropoda: Prosobranchia). Miscellaneous Publications, Museum of Zoology University of Michigan 100, 1–37.Google Scholar
Femald, M. L. (1950). “Gray’s Manual of Botany.” 8th ed. American Book Company.Google Scholar
Foley, R. L. (1984). Late Pleistocene (Woodfordian) vertebrates from the Driftless Area of southwestern Wisconsin, the Moscow Fissure local fauna. Illinois State Museum Reports of Investigations 39, 1–50.Google Scholar
Frest, T. J., and Fay, L. P. (1980). Relict land snails from the Driftless area, Iowa, with implications for Pleistocene climates. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 12, 429.Google Scholar
Gordon, R. G., and Cartwright, O. L. (1988). North American representatives of the Tribe Aegialini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Aphodiinae). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 461.Google Scholar
Graham, R. W., and Semken, H. A. (1976). Paleoecological significance of the short-tailed shrew (Blarina) with a systematic description of Blarina ozarkensis. Journal of Mammalogy 57, 433–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guilday, J. E. (1962). The Pleistocene local fauna of the Natural Chimneys, Augusta County, Virginia. Annals of the Carnegie Museum 36, 87–122.Google Scholar
Guthrie, R. D. (1965). Variability in characters undergoing rapid evolution, an analysis of Microtus molars. Evolution 19, 214–233.Google Scholar
Jammot, D. (1972). Relationships between the new species of Sorex scottensis and the fossil shrews Sorex cinereus Kerr. Mammalia 36, 449–458.Google Scholar
Hibbard, C. W. (1944). Stratigraphy and vertebrate paleontology of Pleistocene deposits of southwestern Kansas. Bulletin Geological Society of America 55, 718–744.Google Scholar
Hoffmeister, D. F. (1989). “Mammals of Illinois.” Univ. of Illinois Press, Champaign, IL.Google Scholar
Johnson, W, H. (1964). Stratigraphy and Petrology of Illinoian and Kansan Drift in Central Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey Circular 378, 1–38.Google Scholar
Jokinen, E. H. (1992). The freshwater snails (Mollusca:Gastropoda) of New York State. New York State Museum Bulletin 482, 1–112.Google Scholar
Jones, G. N. (1963). Flora of Illinois. 3rd ed. American Midland Naturalist Monograph 1. Google Scholar
Jones, G. N., and Fuller, G. D.. (1955). “Vascular Plants of Illinois.” Univ. of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Junge, J. A., and Hoffman, R. S. (1981). An annotated key to the longtailed shrews (genus Sorex) of the United States and Canada, with notes on Middle America Sorex. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas 94, 1–48.Google Scholar
King, J. E., and Saunders, J. J. (1986). Geochelone in Illinois and the Illinoian-Sangamon vegetation of the type region. Quaternary Research 25, 89–99.Google Scholar
Leonard, A. B. Frye, J. C., and Johnson, W. H. (1971). Illinoian and Kansan Molluscan Faunas of Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey Circular 461, 1–24.Google Scholar
Lindroth, C. H. (1961). The Ground beetles (Carabidae, excluding Cicindelinae) of Canada and Alaska. II. Opuscula Entomologica Supplementurm XX, Lund, 1–200.Google Scholar
Little, E. L. Jr., (1971). “Atlas of United States Trees, Vol. 1, Conifers and Important Hardwoods,” U.S. Department of Agriculture Miscellaneous Publication 1146, maps 1-W to 200-E.Google Scholar
MacClintock, P. (1929). 1. Physiographic divisions of the area covered by the Illinoian drifi-sheet in southern Illinois. II. Recent discoveries of pre-Illinoian drift in southern Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey Report of Investigations 19, 1–75.Google Scholar
McCoy, W. D. (1987). Quaternary aminostratigraphy of the Bonneville basin, western United States. Geological Society of America Bulletin 98, 99–112.Google Scholar
McKnight, B. N. (1987). The bryophytes of Illinois. Illinois Natural History Survey Biological Notes 127.Google Scholar
Matthews, J. V. Jr. Mott, R. J., and Vincent, J. S. (1986). Preglacial and interglacial environments of Banks Island: Pollen and macrofossilsfrom Duck Hawk Bluffs and related sites. Geographie physique et Quaternaire 40, 279–298.Google Scholar
Matthews, J. V. Jr., (1974). Quaternary environments at Cape Deceit (Seward Peninsula, Alaska): Evolution of a tundra ecosystem. Evolution of a tundra ecosystem. Geological Society of American Bulletin 85, 1353–1384.Google Scholar
Matthews, J. V. Jr., (1980). Tertiary land bridges and their climate; Backdrop for the development of the present Canadian fauna. Canadian Entomologist 112, 1089–1103.Google Scholar
McMullen, T. L. (1975). Shrews from the Pleistocene of central Kansas with the description of a new species of Sorex. Journal of Mammalogy 56, 316–320.Google Scholar
Miller, B. B. McCoy, W. D., and Bleuer, N. K. (1987). Stratigraphic potential of amino acid ratios in Pleistocene terrestrial gastropods: An example from west-central Indiana. Boreas 16, 133–138.Google Scholar
Miller, B. B. McCoy, W. D. Palmer, D. E Plevniak, J., and Marlette, P. (1989). The “County Line” assemblage: Oldest Quaternary biota from Illinois? Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, 21. A281.Google Scholar
Miller, B. B. McCoy, W. D. Wayne, W. J., and Brockman, C. S. (1992). Ages of the Whitewater and Fairhaven Tills in southwestern Ohio and southeastern Indiana. In “The Last Interglacial-Glacial Transition in North America.” (Clark, P. U. and Lea, P. D., Eds.), pp. 89–98. Geological Society of America Special Paper 270.Google Scholar
Miller, B. B. Palmer, D. F. McCoy, W. D. Smith, A. J., and Colburn, M. L. (1993). A pre-Illinoian fossil assemblage from near Connersville, southeastern Indiana. Quaternary Research 40, 254–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, A. V. (1988). Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Coleoptera in the Great Lakes region. In “Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Paleoecology and Archaeology of the Eastern Great Lakes Region” (Laub, R. S. Miller, N. G., and Steadman, D. W., Eds.), pp. 195–206. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 33.Google Scholar
Morgan, A. V. Kuc, M., and Andrews, J. T. (1993). Paleoecology and age of the Flitaway and Isortoq interglacial deposits, north-central Baffin Island, N.W.T., Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 30, 954–974.Google Scholar
Morgan, A. V. Morgan, A., and Carter, L. D. (1979). “Paleoenvironmental Interpretation of a Fossil Insect Fauna from Bluffs along the Lower Colville River, Alaska.” Report of Progress, Alaskan Branch, U.S. Geological Survey, pp. 41–44.Google Scholar
Oughton, J. (1948). A zoogeographic study of the land snails of Ontario. Toronto University Studies, Biology Series 47, 1–128.Google Scholar
Paulson, G. R. (1960). The mammals of the Cudahy fauna. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters 46, 127–153.Google Scholar
Repenning, C. A. (1992). “‘Ailopkaiomys and the Age of the Olyor Suite, Krestovka Sections, Yakutia.” U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2037.Google Scholar
Repenning, C. A., and Grady, F. (1988). “The Microtine Rodents of the Cheetah Room Fauna, Hamilton Cave, West Virginia, and the Spontaneous Origin of Synaptomys.” United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1853.Google Scholar
Rogers, C. A. Repenning, C. A. Forester, R. M. Larson, E. E. Hall, S. A. Smith, G. S. Anderson, , and Brown, T. J. (1985). Middle Pleistocene (Late Irvingtonian) Climatic Changes in South-Central Colorado. National Geographic Research 1, 535–563.Google Scholar
Sheviak, C. J. (1974). An introduction to the ecology of the Illinois Orchidaceae. Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers 14.Google Scholar
Smetana, A. (1988). Review of the Family Hydrophiliade of Canada and Alaska. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 142.Google Scholar
Van Zyll de Jong, C. G. (1980). Systematic relationships of woodland and prairie forms of the common shrew, Sorex cinereus Kerr and S.C. haydeni Baird, in the Canadian prairie provinces. Journal of Mammalogy 61, 66–75.Google Scholar
Van Zyll de Jong, C. G., and Kirkland, G. L. Jr. (1989). A morphometric analysis of the Sorex cinereus group in central and eastern North America. Journal of Mammalogy 70, 110–122.Google Scholar
Visher, S. S. (1966). “Climatic Atlas of the United States.” Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar