Degree Name
MS (Master of Science)
Program
Geosciences
Date of Award
8-2023
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Chris Widga
Committee Members
Blaine Schubert, Joshua Samuels
Abstract
The Turin Pit locality (Monona county, Iowa) has been known to paleontologists since 1908, yet the age of the fauna has been unclear. Early paleontologists considered Turin Pit to date to a pre-Illinoian interglacial (the “Aftonian).” Subsequent researchers suggested it dated to the last glaciation. This study provides a partial list of mammals in the Turin Pit fauna, and together with stratigraphic information, uses the known age ranges of taxa to estimate an age for the assemblage. The presence of Mammuthus, Aenocyon, and Castoroides combined with a magnetically-reversed till located stratigraphically above fossil-bearing deposits, suggest the Turin Pit assemblage dates between ~1.3 and 0.773 Ma. The fauna can be assigned to the Irvingtonian North American Land Mammal Age based on Mammuthus, Aenocyon, Castoroides, and Ondatra zibethicus annectens. This fossil assemblage provides a rare window into the Quaternary paleontology of Iowa that pre-dates the Illinoian glaciation.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Wright, Samantha, "Age and Paleontology of the Turin Pit locality, Monona County, Iowa" (2023). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4254. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/4254
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.