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First report of fossil Amphiuma (Amphibia: Caudata: Amphiumidae) from South Carolina

Publication Name
(2010) Paludicola, 8(1):1-7
Author(s)
Knight, J.L., and D.J. Cicimurri

Twenty-five fossil Amphiuma vertebrae have been collected from five sites in eastern South Carolina. These specimens constitute the first fossil records of this amphibian from the state and the northernmost record of the genus within the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Eleven specimens from one site in Dorchester County are assigned to the late Blancan North American Land Mammal Age (NALMA) and represent the oldest Pleistocene record (Gelasian Stage) of the genus. A vertebra from a second Dorchester County site was collected from strata thought to have been deposited during the middle Pleistocene (Ionian Stage), within the late Irvingtonian NALMA. Twelve specimens from two exposures of the Wando Formation represent middle Rancholabrean NALMA occurrences within the late Pleistocene (70,000 to 130,000 Ka; Tarantian Stage). A single specimen from Colleton County represents a new addition to the Edisto Beach faunal assemblage, which contains an assortment of fossil taxa ranging in age from late Miocene to late Pleistocene. All of the specimens reported herein are tentatively referred to Amphiuma means based on trunk vertebra morphology and Recent distributions of the three extant species.

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