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Alpine

TX: Brewster Co.

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Location of the Alpine site.Age. Late Wisconsin.

General Description. Ca. 5 miles south of Alpine, sediments along Texas Hwy 118. Probably from Neville Fm.

Discussion. The single specimen is the anterior skull of a prairie dog collected by A. L. Metcalf. Harris (1970) tentatively identified the specimen as Cynomys gunnisoni, but later reassigned it to C. ludovicianus. H. T. Goodwin later examined the fossil and noted "gunnisoni cf." on the label. Reexamination by myself likewise arrived at the conclusion that likely C. gunnisoni is correct. This would be the southernmost Pleistocene record of the species.

Fauna

Cynomys gunnisoni—Gunnison's Prairie Dog (Harris 1970a: cf.)

Literature. Goodwin 1995; Harris 1970a, 1985a.

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Last Update: 20 Dec 2008