Gompotheres A Component Of N. America's Rancholabrean Fauna?

[MarkGelbart]

I was doing further careful research of the literature for my book and found that I overlooked something surprising.

Gompotheres (Cuveironius sp.) did occur in North America during the Rancholabrean land mammal age. According to Additions to the Pleistocene Mammal Fauna of South Carolina by Albert Sanders, fossils of this species have been found in South Carolina and Texas and they date from the Rancholabrean age.

I always thought this was a South American proboscidean. Though they did live in North America during the Irvingtonian land mammal age, I assumed they died out in North America by the Rancholabrean.

There's no records from Florida's abundant fossil record. Texas isn't that far from South America. Perhaps the record in South Carolina comes from a specimen reworked from older deposits.

Anyway, maybe rare stragglers of gompotheres roamed North America alongside mastodons and mammoths during the late Pleistocene.

[mommabetts]

Interesting thanks for sharing.

[32fordboy]

Didn't gomphotheres originate in Asia and move through North America to South America?

Nick

[Frank Menser]

If you pick up a copy of VERTEBRATE FOSSILS: A NEOPHYTE'S GUIDE ~Frank A. Kocsis - he has four pages of pictures of Gomp fossils mostly collected from the Leisly Shell Pit at Ruskin, Florida and dates the specimens from Miocene to (mostly) Pleistocene.

[MarkGelbart]

I think all the proboscideans originally evolved in the old world and migrated to the new.

[sharkdentist]

Mark,

please check out the pm I sent you on the gomp tooth from South Carolina.........