Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-21
fossil REMAINS
FOUND IN ALASKA
Evidence Discovered Of Camel
Life North of the Arc
tic Circle.
COLLECTION BEING MADE
FOR NATIONAL MUSEUM
Skull of a Horse, Well Preserved,
Also Unearthed in the
Frozen Zone.

| AV1SAA 0VASs
| Officials of the Smithsonian Institution
announce that fossil remains Of prehis-
| toric horses and camels have been dis
| covered in Alaska, the discovery having
been made by Copley Amory, jr., in the
| course of an exploring and geologizing
| trip made for the museum.
In the summer of 1912, while collecting
specimens of modern land animals along
| the YukonAlaskan boundary for the
museum. Mr.. Amory obtained small col
lection of fossil bones Of the pleistocene
| age. or that Immediately preceding the
age of man. These bones include several
parts of mammoth horse. bison and
camel, and altogether prove to be of no
little Importance. since the bones of a
camel have never before been found In
this region. There is little doubt, how
ever. that the camel Is pleistOcene, ON
account of the fact that the bone found
by Mr. Amory agrees exactly in color and
degree of fossiiZation with those of the
mammals known to be of that epoch,
which were found with it.
Camels North of Arctic Circle.
In a paper of the smithsonian miscel-
laneous collections, describing this speci-
men, J. w. Gidley remarks that while the
specimen itself is insignificant. yet it's
presence in the collection proves unQues-
tionably that camels once existed In
locality north of the arctic circle The
find was located at a point about fifty
miles from the mouth Of the Old Crow
river. in the Yukon territory, Canada, not
far from the Yukon-Alaskan boundary
line. The Old Crow rises in Alaska.
crosses the dividing line and joins the
PorcupiHe river, a branch of the Yukon
flowing from Yukon into Alaska. Here
tofore the northern limit of the range Of
fossil camels in America has been Silver
lake. or Christmas lake, Oregon. which is
just north of the forty-third parallel Of
latitude and some 20 degrees to the south
of the new northern limit
1t is known that several large species
of camels were very abundant on this
continent during both the pliocene and
the pleistocene periods, and the discovery
of their remains in the pleistocene de-
posits of the Alaskan peninsula was not
altogether unlocked for, although their
occurrence SO far within the arctic circle
was scarcely expected.
What the Find Proves.
This notification of their former pres
ence within that region, therefore, is of
especial interest, in that it greatly ex-
tends the known geographic distribution
of this important group of mammals in
America during this period, incidentally
adding proof in support Of the suppose
ton that milder climatic conditions pre-
vailed in Alaska during probably the
greater part of the pleistocene period. 1t
also tends to support the theory Of the
existence Of a wide Asiatic-Alaskan land
connection of comparatively recent date,
which for a great length Of time served
a for the rni0r9 finO nj
mails from the old world to America.
The foot bone found by Mr.. Amory is
| Enthusiastically that of a camel and closely
resembles similar bones Of living spe-
| cies.
A no less interesting acquisition of the
National Museum is the fossil skull of
| a horse, which is reported on by DR.. O.
p Hay of the Carnegie Institution, in the
der the title Description of the Skull OF
an Extinct Horse found In Central Alas
ka." This skull was found by c. p.
Snyder in the course of mining opera
lions near lofty, Alaska, small mining
town situated on SullivanS creek. about
twenty-four miles southwest of Rampant.
and seven miles northwest Of Hot Springs.
The skull is remarkably we'll preserved,
stained brown, and, although thoroughly
mineralized, retains it's original struc-
ture 1t is somewhat broken on the top
part of the nose, and the lower jaw is
missing, but the teeth are in fine con-
dition. Its Importance is enhanced by
the fact that hitherto our knowledge OF
Alaskan horses has been based on very
scant remains, such as single teeth, or
a very few teeth associated together, and
| a few bones or fragments OF them. Such
remains had been found, however, at
number of places and, meager as they
We're, they showed that at some time
| in the past horses had been widely dis
| tributed in this apparently barren re-
gion.
Map Shows locations.
| With his report DR.. Hay published a
map showing the localities where evil
dences of fossil horses have been found
in Alaska and Yukon. as far as they have
come to his notice, and also mentions the
| other finds and their location. making
| many technical comparisons.
The horse whose skull has just come
to light was probably male Of about
six years, as the upper canine teeth are
| well developed. After making a series Of
careful measurements followed by COM
| PARSONS with all the material available
the author concludes that this specimen
| probably belonged to the species which
| he recently described in the proceedings
| of the United States National Museum
under the name ''Equus niobrarensis,' -
| the horse living in the region of the Mo-
|
! brara river, northern Nebraska, but as
| there appear to be certain differences
which make it proper to recognize it as a
| distinct form. he has added the name
| 'alashae. 1t differs from the type-fo form
| found in Hay Springs, northwestern Ne
| braska, in that it is considerably smaller
Specimens From Western Texas.
| Other specimens of the same species
| have been recognized from teeth found
| in western Texas, eastern Nebraska and
| western Iowa. Dr.. Hay also mentions
| the fossil teeth and leg bone Of the horse
found in Yukon by Mr.. Amory and stated
that one of the upper molars presents a
similar appearance to that Of the Alaskan
| horse described in his paper.
| II is understood that the horses which
lived in North America during the pleis-
tocene age We're probably derived from
| stock which crossed over from Asia into
Alaska and then made their way over
nearly the whole of both North and South
| America.
UNITED STATES WINS SHOOT.