Fossil Herpetofauna of the Lisco C Quarries (Pliocene: Early Blancan) of Nebraska

Authors

J. Alan Holman, Michigan State University Museum
M. Elise Schloeder, University of Nebraska State Museum

Date of this Version

1991

Document Type

Article

Comments

1991. Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, XVIII: 19-29. Copyright © 1991 Holman and Schloeder.

Abstract

The Pliocene (Early Blancan, 3.8 Ma) herpetofauna of the Lisco C Quarry of Garden County, Nebraska, consists of at least two anurans, two testudines, four saurians, and ten snakes. Only one of these, Sceloporus cf. S. robustus Twente, is extinct. An eastern extralimital form, Elaphe vulpina (Baird and Girard) and possibly another, Storeria sp., occur in the Lisco C fauna. It is suggested that the Lisco C herpetofauna may indicate a cooler, moister paleoclimate than the later Blancan Sand Draw (3.5 Ma), Big Springs (2.5 Ma), and Hornets' Nest (2.0 Ma) herpetofaunas of Nebraska. The Lisco C herpetofauna could have lived in a habitat consisting of a small oxbow-pond surrounded by a marshy area giving way to a terrestrial situation.