The Borchers Fauna, a New Pleistocene Interglacial Fauna from Meade County, Kansas

Abstract

A previously unknown mammalian fauna from interglacial Pleistocene deposits of the High Plains region is described from Meade County, Kansas, and a short discussion of the geological relations of the fossil-bearing beds is given. The fauna indicates the existence of a warm climatic condition at the time that the fauna lived in the area. Remains of four classes of vertebrates have been collected from the deposit--amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals--of which specimens belonging to the first three have not yet been studied. This paper treats the Mammalia, which consists of 4 orders, 9 families, and 12 genera. The following new species are described and illustrated: Citellus meadensis, Citellus cragini, Perognathus pearlettensis, Onychomys fossilis, Reithrodontomys pratincola, Sigmodon hilli, and Zapus burti.