Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
2021
Abstract
Late-Pleistocene fossil sites are uncommon in Georgia. However, Clark Quarry, a locality near Brunswick, Georgia, has yielded a large and diverse collection of vertebrate skeletal material dominated by cranial and post-cranial fossils of Columbian mammoths (Mammathus columbi) and giant bison (Bison latifrons). Screen washing of the fossiliferous sediment associated with the bones of the megafauna has produced a large number of microfossils. Here I describe fossil rodents from Clark Quarry. Cranial and post-cranial material of eight rodent taxa have been identified to date. Of these, five are found in the area today: Sigmodon hispidus, Peromyscus sp., Oryzomys palustris, Neofiber alleni, Reithrodontomys humulis. For the other three, the Florida bog lemming (Synaptomys australis) is now extinct, Clark Quarry is south of the current range of the groundhog (Marmota monax), and the capybara (Hydrochoerus) is only found in Central and South America today. The typical habitat of the species in this locality indicate that the environment was likely grassy marshland. The fossils found in Clark Quarry provide a glimpse of the diversity of Late-Pleistocene rodent fauna in Georgia.
Recommended Citation
Rhinehart, Parker, "Pleistocene Rodents from Southeast Georgia" (2021). Graduate Research Showcase. 12.
https://kb.gcsu.edu/grposters/12