Where: St Marys County, Maryland (38.1° N, 76.4° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

When: Middle Pleistocene (0.8 - 0.1 Ma)

• "Mr. Rye, through his detailed studies of the area, attributes the age of the deposit to the Sangamon interglacial period of the Pleistocene."

Environment/lithology: marine; nodular, pebbly, sandy claystone

Size class: macrofossils

• "The bone includes the upper part of the skull, with the central area of the back missing in a narrow section through the supra-occipital, including the foramen magnum. The upper surface is complete through the frontal region to the basal part of the nasal. The postorbital processes are in place on each side, with the squamosal and the outer area of the parietal. Underneath, the basitemporal plate is fairly complete, but only part of the sphenoidal rostrum remains. The basal part of the occipital condyle is present, but the sides and the top area of the foramen magnum are missing, as is the entire palatal area."

Collected by Raymond T. Rye II

Collection methods: salvage,

• "In recent study of the geology near the mouth of the Potomac River, Raymond T. Rye

•II, of Silver Spring, Maryland, collected a small clay nodule in which bones were embedded. When cleaned and repaired in the laboratory of the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology of the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, these proved to be part of the skull of a duck. The specimen, a gift from the collector to the museum, is catalog No. 179282 in the division mentioned."

Primary reference: A. Wetmore. 1973. A Pleistocene record for the White-winged Scoter in Maryland. The Auk 90(4):910-911 [M. Uhen/M. Shalap]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 125184: authorized by Mark Uhen, entered by Margaret Shalap on 06.03.2012

Creative Commons license: CC0 (CC0)