Preliminary Correlation of Florida and Central Great Plains Pliocene and Pleistocene Mammalian Local Faunas Based on Rodent Biostratigraphy

Abstract

A preliminary attempt is made to correlate the late Pliocene and Pleistocene mammalian local faunas of peninsular Florida with those of the central Great Plains. Critical taxa among the rodents are the cotton rats, genus Sigmodon, and the arvicolids, especially Ondatra and Microtus. The dense rodent fossil record and accompanying radiometric dates of the Meade Basin of southwestern Kansas provide a chronological template for North American rodent faunas, and suggest that mammalian local faunas from the late Blancan Haile 15A through Rancholabrean of Florida may be fit into five of Martin’s Great Plains rodent zones.