The Mauvilla Local Fauna (also referred as the Mobile Local Fauna) is a local fauna in Alabama, the fossils within the fauna date back to the Late Miocene. The sediment that makes up the locality where the fossils are found underlies the Citronelle Formation. The local fauna preserves a deltaic ecosystem mostly made up of terrestrial vertebrates though fragmentary fish and cetacean material is also found at the site.
The vertebrate material that makes up the local fauna was originally found by James E. Davis Jr. in the fall of 1966 within Chickasaw Creek. As the name suggests, the local fauna is found near Mauvilla, a town in southwestern Alabama. More specimens were collected by both Davis and his father only to be given to G. M. Lamb at the University of South Alabama who then sent the fossils to National Museum of Natural History where the were identified is the first Hemphillian mammals to be found in Alabama. Before the local fauna was given a name, fossils from the locality were referenced in 1971 by Isphoding and Lamb where they gave it the name "Moblie local fauna" though the name "Mobile" is already used in the form of a nearby formation. Between the 1960's and 1980's, multiple excavations had taken place which recovered hundreds of vertebrates fossils from these deposits. [1][2]
The Mauvilla local fauna is derived from a 60 m interval of alternating beds of sand and dark clay with the clay layers averaging 10 cm while the sand layers are discontinuous and average from 2-3 cm.[1] Though originally believed to be part of the middle Pliocene Citronelle Formation, it was later discovered that it was a part of a section of undifferentiated sediment underlying the Citronelle Formation; it is currently labeled as a part of ‘Ecor Rouge Sand’. The vertebrate material itself is located in the sand layers just above the clay. Based on this and the fauna within the locality, it has been suggested that the fossils were deposited during a flooding event within a deltaic floodplain.[2]
A tayassuid known from dental remains along with metatarsals found within the local fauna. Though the material is too fragmentary to make an exact assignment, they are more similar to P. serus when comparing it to other members of the family that would have been around at the time.
A canid known from a radius and phalanx found within the local fauna. Though shorter than other material assigned to E. haydeni, they do fall within the intraspecific variation of borophagine limbs.
Overall the environment of the Mauvilla local fauna is representative of a subtropical to tropical delta, comparable to the modern day delta a part of the Mobile river system. This environment would have been in the middle of the transition between a more brackish environment made up of marshes to one that is a completely fluvial environment.[4]
^JASINSKI, STEVEN E. (2013). "Review of the fossil Trionychidae (Testudines) from Alabama, including the oldest record of trionychid turtles from eastern North America". Bulletin of the Alabama Museum of Natural History. 31 (2).
United States
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