Quitaque Creek
Basic information
Sample name: Quitaque Creek

Reference: W. W. Dalquest. 1964. A new Pleistocene local fauna from Motley County, Texas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 67(3):499-505 [ER 4078]
Geography
Country: United States

State: Texas


County: Motley


Coordinate: 34.23° N, -100.71° W
Coordinate basis: estimated from map

Scale: outcrop

Time interval: Late Pleistocene

Ma: 0.0314

Age basis: radiocarbon (uncalibrated)

Geography comments: "in the bed of a small arroyo tributary to Quitaque Creek, in the northeastern corner of Motley County"
"The Pleistocene terrace from which the fauna were collected is on the north side of Quitaque Creek, beginning approximately one-half mile east of (downstream from) the crossing of State Farm Market Road 599, and extending for about one-quarter of a mile. The sediments of the terrace are apparently continuous and lie at one level above the present stream bed"
said to be "early Wisconsin" in age, and freshwater mussel shells were dated by radiocarbon at 31,400 ± 5600 and 31,400 ± 3200 ybp

Environment
Lithology: claystone

Habitat comments: "sands and gravels, irregularly bedded and often cross-bedded, and gray to brownish-gray clay beds" and the fossils are mostly from the clay
"the present deposits are terrace sediments, resulting from the filling of an older, broader valley... Presumably the clays were deposited in ponds or oxbow lakes on the old floodplain"

Methods
Life forms: bats,carnivores,rodents,ungulates,birds

Sampling methods: screenwash

Sample size: 29 specimens

Years: 1958

Sampling comments: the site was discovered by Gene Wilson in 1958
"On subsequent visits to the area additional vertebrate fossils were found, and a ton of gray clay matrix was washed and sorted... all of the large mammal bones were taken in three small areas fifty yards apart" and the screened sampled is not said to be from elsewhere
molluscs including the mussels were collected and were to be reported later by D. Allen and E. Cheatum
"unidentified fishes, catfish fin spines, broken frog bones and snake vertebrae" are also present and "One broken bird bone was identified by Dr. Pierce Brodkorb, of the University of Florida, as belonging to a small finch" (= Fringillidae indet.)

Metadata
Sample number: 4504

Contributor: John Alroy

Enterer: John Alroy

Modifier no: John Alroy

Created: 2024-11-20 05:48:15

Modified: 2024-11-20 05:53:21

Abundance distribution
14 species
10 singletons
total count 29
geometric series index: 63.8
Fisher's α: 10.650
geometric series k: 0.8610
Hurlbert's PIE: 0.8658
Shannon's H: 2.3152
Good's u: 0.6552
Each square represents a species. Square sizes are proportional to counts.
Register
Fringillidae indet.1
Vespertilionidae indet.1
"probably" this family
Spermophilus cf. tridecemlineatus = Ictidomys cf. tridecemlineatus1160 g
Geomys bursarius1
Microtus sp.1
ochrogaster or pinetorum
Microtus pennsylvanicus135.7 g
Synaptomys cooperi129.0 g
Canis latrans112 kg carnivore-insectivore
Felis cf. onca = Panthera cf. onca165 kg carnivore
Proboscidea indet.4
a scapula and "several" bone fragments
Equus cf. conversidens3
Equus sp.7
large: four identified specimens and "some" isolated foot bones
Camelops sp.5
Odocoileus virginianus175 kg herbivore