8 p. : ill., map ; 24 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 8)

Kitts, David B.

American Museum of Natural History Scientific Publications

AMERICAN MUSEUMNOVISTATESPUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORYCITY OF NEW YORK JANUARY 21, 1953 NUMBER 1607A PLEISTOCENE MUSK. OX FROM NEWYORK AND THE DISTRIBUTIONOF THE MUSK-OXENBY DAVID B. KITTSINTRODUCTIONSpecimens of fossil Ovibos have been known and correctly iden-tified since 1831 (Beechey, 1831), but finds have been rare. At thepresent time only about 20 fossil specimens from North Americahave been recorded in the literature. This paper describes a par-tial skull of Ovibos moschatus from the gravel pit of the Barney andDickinson Company located at Willow Point, Town of Vestal,Broome County, New York. In view of the rarity of fossil speci-mens of this genus, a description of the present specimen is be-lieved to be justified, despite its fragmentary nature. The speci-men is, furthermore, the first one to be found in New York State,although the former presence of Ovibos in this area might havebeen inferred from the fact that fossil specimens pertaining to thisgenus have been found in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and southernOntario.Mr. Ralph Digman of the Department of Geology, HarpurCollege, has examined the locality at which the specimen wasfound. His help is gratefully acknowledged. The specimen wasdiscovered at a depth of 8 feet in stratified drift. The materialexposed in the pit is of glacial origin and of Wisconsin age. Mr.Digman states that from the character of the drift it appears to becorrelative with the Binghamton drift of probable Cary substage.The writer wishes to acknowledge the generosity of the BroomeCounty Historical Society in presenting the specimen to the Amer-ican Museum of Natural History. The writer is indebted to Mr. H.M. Van Deusen of the Department of Mammals of this Museum2 .M~RI~A1N. JlEUM OVITATSg, NO. 1607for the opportunity to examine Recent specimens of this genus,and to Dr. G. G. Simpson for the opportunity to describe thisspecimen and for his helpful criticism.DESCRIPTIONORDER ARTIODACTYLA OWEN, 1848FAMILY BOVIDAE GRAY, 1821OVIBOS DE BLAINVILLE, 1816Ovibos moschatus (Zimmerman), 1780The specimen (A.M.N.H. No. 39550) consists of the posteriorportion of the skull. The region in front of a line just posterior tothe orbits is missing, as is the entire basilar portion. The specimenis greatly worn, undoubtedly as a result -of having been trans-ported in glacial streams. The greater part of the horn cores andthe lateral edges of the exoccipitals have been worn away. Theparamastoid processes, muscular processes, tympanic bullae, andthe bases of the zygomatic processes are lacking. The dorsal partof the endocranium, however, is well preserved.Enough of the skull remains to show the striking ovibovinespecialization, namely, the pronounced rugosity of almost theentire dorsal surface of the cranial portion of the skull. This regionis well preserved and shows little wear. A median groove separatesthe area of rugosity into lateral halves, a character typical ofadult male individuals of the genus. Comparison of the specimenwith the skulls of Recent adult males reveals no morphologicaldifferences that would warrant specific distinction.Of the 17 fossil specimens from North America referable to thegenus Ovibos, only three have been assigned to species other than0. moschatus.Bensley (1923) provisionally designated a partial skull from theIroquois Beach deposits of Toronto as the type of the species 0.proximus, separating it from 0. moschatus on the basis of the morecompact and more transversely quadrate shape of the skull.A nearly complete skull from the Palisades of the Yukon wasdesignated as the type of 0. yueonensis by Gidley (1908), whoseparated it from 0. moschatus principally on the basis of thelarger size and somewhat different proportions of the skull. Thespecimen differs further from the skull of 0. moschatus in thatthe premaxillaries nearly reach the nasals, the basisphenoid&A'.FIG. 1. Ovibos moschatus. A M N H. No. 39550, cranial portion of skull.Top, dorsal view. Bottom, occipital view. Both approximately one-half naturalsize.4 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES NO. 1607slightly overlaps the vomer, and the otic bullae are greatly re-duced. Although this specimen is indeed slightly larger than thelargest Recent skulls in the collections of this Museum, Allen(1913) believed that this specimen possibly fell within the limitsof 0. moschatus.Rhoads (1895) described part of a horn core from Bucks County,Pennsylvania, to which he applied the name Bison appalachicolus.He later concluded (Rhoads, 1897) that the horn core had be-longed to an animal of the genus Ovibos, and consequently itbears the name 0. appalachicolus. This specimen is probably toofragmentary for specific determination.All of the above specimens closely resemble Recent specimensof 0. moschatus, and it should be noted that the authors basedtheir conclusions in each case on a comparison with only one Re-cent specimen.Since many of the anatomical characters used to make specificdistinctions in the above cases are missing from the BroomeCounty specimen, no direct comparison can be made. The speci-men has been compared with a sample of 15 Recent adult malemusk-oxen from the collections of this Museum. These specimenswere collected in Northern Grant Land by the Perry Arctic Ex-peditions and have been described and many of them figured byAllen (1913).Owing to the condition of the fossil specimen, it was extremelydifficult to obtain any useful measurements. The distances meas-ured were selected simply because they were the only ones thatcould be defined with any degree of accuracy. Although necessarilysomewhat crude, it is believed that the measurements provide anadequate basis for the comparison of the specimen with the Re-cent sample.The four measurements made were: horizontal distance betweenthe junction of the squamous and parieto-frontal sutures and thetemporal crest (L); minimum width of the skull at the constrictionjust above the nuchal crest (W); vertical height from the dorsallip of the foramen magnum to the nuchal crest (H1); and verticalheight from the dorsal lip of the foramen magnum to the bottomof the median groove separating the areas of rugosity on thedorsal surface of the skull (H2).Little comment regarding the comparison of the measurementsseems necessary, since all of the measurements of the fossil speci-men fall within the range of the Recent sample. This fact and the1953 MUSK-OX FROM NEW YORK 5lack of morphological distinction leave little doubt that the fossilspecimen may be assigned to 0. moschatus.RECENT SAMPLE A.M.N.H.N OR M No. 39550L 15 85-98 91.8 96W 15 101-131 113.9 120Hi 15 73-89 82.4 78H2 15 94-124 105.5 111All measurements are in millimeters.N, number of measurements included.OR, observed range.M, mean.DISTRIBUTION OF RECENT AND FOSSIL MUSK-OXENPleistocene musk-oxen have been found at about 50 localitiesin North America. The great majority of these localities pertainto Ovibos and Symbos. Since specific criteria are not well definedin Ovibos, and Symbos localities for species other than S. cavifronsare so rare, a discussion of specific distribution has not been at-tempted. Although the general pattern of temporal distribution isevident, the exact dating of any single specimen is so uncertainthat no detailed treatment of this problem has been included.Figure 2 shows the Pleistocene musk-ox localities by genus andthe distribution of Ovibos both in the last century and at the pres-ent time. The maximum extent of continental glaciation duringthe Wisconsin is also shown.All the fossil Ovibos localities are of late Pleistocene age and,with two exceptions, either north or just south of a line markingthe maximum extent of glaciation during the Wisconsin. TheColorado occurrence, which is doubtful since the specimen con-sists of the well-worn distal end of a humerus, is within an areathat was subject to mountain glaciation during the Pleistocene.Thus, with the exception of the locality in western Nebraska, allthe Ovibos localities are within areas that were close to the edge ofthe ice sheet and presumably were covered by tundra at sometime during the Wisconsin or early Recent. Furthermore, most ofthe deposits in which these specimens were found are of glacialorigin. There is little reason to doubt that Ovibos was during thePleistocene, as now, largely restricted to the areas of tundra at theedge of the ice sheet.6 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES NO. 1607The range of Ovibos moved northward with the receding tundraand within the Recent was nearly circumpolar. Within historicaltimes, although extinct in Europe, musk-oxen ranged from north-ern Alaska to the east coast of Greenland. During the nineteenthcentury, however, this range was much reduced, probably owing ino **0~~~~~* Pleistocene Ovibos localities 1 \ {o Pleistocene !embo localities JB Pleistocene Bootherium localities )X Pleistocene Eucertherium localitieszfl Distribution of Qvibo during earlypart at nineteenth century s_Present distribution at Qvibos1Limit of Wisconsin continental glaciationFTIG. 2. Map of North America showing distribution of Recent and Pleistocenemusk-oxen.1953 MUSK-OX FROM NEW YORK 7large part to the use of firearms by the Indians and Eskimos andto commerical hunting by trappers. Since 1917 musk-oxen havebeen protected by the Canadian government, and recent legisla-tion by the Danish government has provided large preserve areasin Greenland. The, musk-ox does not at present appear to be inany immediate danger of extinction. For discussions of the presentstatus of the musk-ox, see Hone (1934) and Yarham (1951).The distribution of Symbos differed from that of Ovibos bothspatially and temporally. It was distinctly more southern andsomewhat more western, and extended throughout the Pleisto-cene. The localities in Oklahoma, and particularly the one inMississippi, clearly show that at least some of these animals oc-curred far south of the glacier in a relatively warm, non-tundraenvironment. On the other hand, although the stratigraphic posi-tion of most of the Symbos specimens was not accurately deter-mined, in some cases the geologic evidence indicates that the ani-mals were buried under conditions prevailing at the edge of theglacier. The Symbos localities appear to represent either a singlefar-ranging species of rather broad ecological tolerance or, whatwould seem to be more likely in view of our knowledge of Recentanimals, two or more species or subspecies adapted to differentclimatic conditions. It is not necessary to conclude, however, thatSymbos was adapted to both tundra and steppe. Evidence frompollen analysis and fish distribution (Deevey, 1949) suggests thatthe tundra belt peripheral to the ice sheet at its maximum wasvery narrow. It is possible that throughout its history Symboswas a woodland or steppe form despite the fact that it rangedclose to the glacier.It appears unlikely, furthermore, that Ovibos and Symbos oc-curred in exactly the same ecological niche. The two genera havenever been found in association, but in view of the relative rarityof finds this fact could well be due to chance. Of course Symbosmay have occupied the tundra area during the early and middlePleistocene, to be replaced there by Ovibos at the beginning ofthe late Pleistocene. In this connection it should be noted that, tothe knowledge of the writer, the only Symbos specimen that hascertainly been associated with a glacial deposit is of Kansan age(Lugn and Schultz, 1934).The genus Euceratherium was restricted to the west coast andthe southwest, well isolated from other genera of musk-oxen.The Bootherium localities, although very widely spread, are so8 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES NO. 1607rare that no generalizations about the distribution of this genusare possible. This genus was apparently present throughout thePleistocene.LITERATURE CITEDALLEN, JOEL ASAPH1913. Ontogenetic and other variations in muskoxen, with a systematicreview of the muskox group, Recent and extinct. Mem. Amer. Mus.Nat. Hist., new ser., vol. 1, pt. 4, pp. 101-226.BEECHEY, F. W.1831. Narrative of a voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait, to co-operatewith the polar expeditions: performed in His Majesty's Ship Blossom,under the command of Captain F. W. Beechey, in the years 1825, 2627, 28. London, Coldurn and Bentley, vol. 2, 452 pp.BENSLEY, B. ARTHUR1923. A muskox skull from the Iroquois Beach deposits at Toronto: Ovibosproximus, sp. nov. Univ. Toronto Studies, biol. ser., no. 23, pp. 1-11.DEEVEY, EDWARD S.1949. Biogeography of the Pleistocene. Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. 60, pp.1315-1416.GIDLEY, JAMES W.1908. Descriptions of two new species of Pleistocene ruminants of the generaOvibos and Bootherium, with notes on the latter genus. Proc. U. S.Natl. Mus., vol. 34, pp. 681-684.HONE, ELIZABETH1934. The present status of the muskox in arctic North America and Green-land, with notes on distribution, extirpation, transplantation, protec-tion, habits and life history. Special Publ. Amer. Comm. Wild LifeProtection, no. 5, pp. 1-84.LUGN, A. L., AND C. BERTRAND SCHULTZ1934. The geology and mammalian fauna of the Pleistocene of Nebraska.Nebraska State Mus., Bull. 41, vol. 1, pp. 319-393.RHOADS, SAMUEL N.1895. Distribution of American bison in Pennsylvania, with remarks on anew fossil species. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, pp. 244-248.1897. Notes on living and extinct species of North American Bovidae. Ibid.,pp. 483-502.YARHAM, E. R.1951. Saving the musk-ox from extinction. Zoo Life, Bull. Zool. Soc. Lon-don, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 68-72.

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