Part 1

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS

MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Volume 14, No. 17, pp. 483-491, 2 figs. March 2, 1964

Records of the Fossil Mammal Sinclairella, Family Apatemyidae, From the Chadronian and Orellan

WILLIAM A. CLEMENS, JR.

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1964

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch, Theodore H. Eaton, Jr.

Volume 14, No. 17, pp. 483-491, 2 figs. Published March 2, 1964

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas

PRINTED BY HARRY (BUD) TIMBERLAKE, STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS

1964

29-8587

Records of the Fossil Mammal Sinclairella, Family Apatemyidae, From the Chadronian and Orellan

WILLIAM A. CLEMENS, JR.

Introduction

The family Apatemyidae has a long geochronological range in North America, beginning in the Torrejonian land-mammal age, but is represented by a relatively small number of fossils found at a few localities. Two fossils of Orellan age, found in northeastern Colorado and described here, demonstrate that the geochronological range of the Apatemyidae extends into the Middle Oligocene. Isolated teeth of Sinclairella dakotensis Jepsen, part of a sample of a Chadronian local fauna collected by field parties from the Webb School of California, are also described.

I thank Mr. Raymond M. Alf, Webb School of California, Claremont, California, and Dr. Peter Robinson, University of Colorado Museum, Boulder, Colorado, for permitting me to describe the fossils they discovered. Also Dr. Robinson made available the draft of a short paper he had prepared on the tooth found in Weld County, Colorado; his work was facilitated by a grant from the University of Colorado Council on Research and Creative Work. I also gratefully acknowledge receipt of critical data and valuable comments from Drs. Edwin C. Galbreath, Glenn L. Jepsen, and Malcolm C. McKenna who is currently revising the Paleocene apatemyids and studying the phylogenetic relationships of the family. The prefixes of catalogue numbers used in the text identify fossils in the collections of the following institutions: KU, Museum of Natural History, The University of Kansas, Lawrence; Princeton, Princeton Museum, Princeton, New Jersey; RAM-UCR, Raymond Alf Museum, Webb School of California, Claremont, California (the permanent repository for these specimens will be the University of California, Riverside); and UCM, University of Colorado Museum, Boulder, Colorado. The system of notations for teeth prescribed for use here is as follows: teeth in the upper half of the dentition are designated by a capital letter and a number; thus M2 is the notation for the upper second molar; teeth in the lower half of the dentition are designated by a lower-case letter and a number; thus p2 is the notation for the lower second premolar.

Family APATEMYIDAE Matthew, 1909

Genus =Sinclairella= Jepsen, 1934

=Sinclairella dakotensis= Jepsen, 1934

The type of the species, Princeton no. 13585, was discovered in Chadronian strata of the upper part of the Chadron Formation cropping out in Big Corral Draw, approximately 13 miles south-southwest of Scenic, in southwestern South Dakota (Jepsen, 1934, p. 291). Detailed descriptions of the type specimen are given in papers by Jepsen (1934) and Scott and Jepsen (1936). Isolated teeth of Chadronian age referable to Sinclairella dakotensis have been discovered subsequently at a locality in Nebraska and fossils of Orellan age, also referable to S. dakotensis, have been collected at two localities in Colorado. The sample from each locality is described separately.

Sioux County, northwestern Nebraska

Material.--RAM-UCR nos. 381, left M1; 598, left m2; 1000, right m1; 1001, right m2; 1079, right m2; 1674, right M2; and 3013, left m2.

Locality and stratigraphy.--These Chadronian fossils were discovered by Raymond Alf and members of his field parties in several harvester ant mounds built in exposures of the Chadron Formation in Sec. 26, T 33 N, R 53 W, Sioux County, Nebraska (Alf, 1962, and Hough and Alf, 1958). This is UCR locality V5403. The collectors carefully considered the possibility that some of the fossils found in the ant mounds were collected from younger strata by the harvester ants and concluded this was unlikely (Alf, personal communication).

Description and comments.--The cusps of RAM-UCR no. 381, a left M1, are sharp and the wear-facets resulting from occlusion with the lower dentition are small. The paraconule is a low, ill-defined cusp on the anterior margin of the crown; a metaconule is not present. A smooth stylar shelf is present labial to the metacone. The crown was supported by three roots. There are no interradicular crests.

The crown of RAM-UCR no. 1674, a right M2, is heavily abraded and many morphological details of the cusps have been destroyed. Low interradicular crests linked the three roots of the tooth with a low, central prominence. As was the case with RAM-UCR no. 381, no significant differences could be found in comparisons with illustrations of the teeth preserved in Princeton no. 13585.

RAM-UCR nos. 598, 1001, 1079, and 3013 all appear to be m2's. The talonids of these teeth are not elongated, their trigonids have quadrilateral outlines, and the paraconids are small but prominent, bladelike cusps. The trigonid of RAM-UCR 1000 is elongated and the paraconid is a minute cusp; the tooth closely resembles the m1 of the type of Sinclairella dakotensis.