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Salamanders Of The Mio-Pliocene Gray Fossil Site, Washington County, Tennessee., Grant Stanley Boardman May 2009

Salamanders Of The Mio-Pliocene Gray Fossil Site, Washington County, Tennessee., Grant Stanley Boardman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Screening efforts at the Gray Fossil Site, Washington County, Tennessee, have yielded a unique and diverse salamander fauna for the southern Appalachian Mio-Pliocene; including at least five taxa from three modern families (Ambystomatidae, Plethodontidae, and Salamandridae) supporting the woodland-pond interpretation of the site. All specimens represent the earliest record of their respective families in the Appalachian Mountains; with the Notophthalmus sp. vertebrae being the only Mio-Pliocene skeletal fossil known for the family Salamandridae in North America. Three types of plethodontid salamander are present, with one type representing the earliest known desmognathine. The desmognathine fossils lend credence to the 'Appalachian' origin …


Miocene Herpetofaunas From The Central Gulf Coast Usa: Their Paleoecology, Biogeography, And Biostratigraphy, Michael John Williams Jan 2009

Miocene Herpetofaunas From The Central Gulf Coast Usa: Their Paleoecology, Biogeography, And Biostratigraphy, Michael John Williams

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The late Barstovian Fort Polk herpetofauna represents the most diverse herpetofauna on the Gulf Coast, USA, and includes 15 genera from ten families. The herpetofaunal composition of Fort Polk and Miocene east Texas localities is similar enough to Great Plains localities that they are all considered to be one biogeographical province during the Barstovian. The use of ternary diagrams, ratios of herpetological elements to kg matrix screened, and natricine-colubrine indices, has allowed determining the wetness of the Fort Polk sites. Development of a composite stratigraphic section for North American fossil snakes has allowed recognition of two extinctions of fossil snakes …