Snake Creek Burial Cave (Pleistocene to of the United States)

Also known as SCBC

Where: White Pine County, Nevada (39.0° N, 114.0° W: paleocoordinates 39.0° N, 114.0° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Late/Upper Pleistocene to Late/Upper Pleistocene (0.1 - 0.0 Ma)

• "at least some of the deposits" are "late Rancholabrean" or "late [Wisconsinan] glacial" but some might be early Holocene based on dates of "7,860 +/- 130 yr B.P." (conventional C14) on bat guano (Unit II); "9,460 +/- 160 yr B.P." (AMS on wood) "from the very top" of the underlying fossiliferous Unit III; and "15,100 +/- 700 yr B.P." (U-Th) "on an Equus second phalanx recovered from near the bottom" of Unit III)

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: cave; unlithified, fine-grained, shelly/skeletal siltstone

• "white to tan-pink, very soft, fine, highly fossiliferous" sediment, apparently meaning siltstone and definitely not sandstone based on illustration of section

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by E. M. Mead, J. I. Mead, A. Cartwright, D. Cartwright, D. Dawson, S. Emslie, W. J. Marsh, J. W. Marsh, C. Mead, P. Youngman in 1984, 1987

Collection methods: bulk, quarrying, sieve,

• "an estimated 30,000 fish, amphibian, reptilian, avian, and mammalian bones" were excavated and "All material was screened through both 5-mm and 1-mm screens"

Primary reference: E. M. Mead and J. I. Mead. 1989. Snake Creek Burial Cave and a review of the Quaternary mustelids of the Great Basin. Great Basin Naturalist 49(2):143-154 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 93291: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 13.01.2010

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• only the mustelids are listed comprehensively
Mammalia
 Artiodactyla - Camelidae
Camelops sp. Leidy 1854 camel
 Perissodactyla - Equidae
Equus sp. Linnaeus 1758 horse
 Carnivora - Mustelidae
Taxidea taxus, "Mustela frenata" = Neogale frenata, "Mustela vison" = Neogale vison, Mustela nigripes, Mustela erminea, Mustela nivalis, "Martes americana" = Martes americana, "Martes nobilis" = Martes americana, Gulo gulo
Taxidea taxus Schreber 1778 American badger
"Mustela frenata" = Neogale frenata Lichtenstein 1831 long-tailed weasel
"Mustela vison" = Neogale vison Schreber 1777 mink
Mustela nigripes Audubon and Bachman 1851 black-footed ferret
Mustela erminea Linnaeus 1758 stoat
Mustela nivalis Linnaeus 1766 least weasel
"Martes americana" = Martes americana Kerr 1792 American marten
"Martes nobilis" = Martes americana Kerr 1792 American marten
Gulo gulo Linnaeus 1758 wolverine
 Carnivora - Mephitidae
Mephitis mephitis Schreber 1776 striped skunk
"Brachyprotoma brevimala" = Brachyprotoma obtusata Cope 1899 short-faced skunk
Spilogale putorius Linnaeus 1758 eastern spotted skunk
 Rodentia - Sciuridae
Marmota sp., "Spermophilus townsendii" = Urocitellus townsendii
Marmota sp. Frisch 1775 marmot
"Spermophilus townsendii" = Urocitellus townsendii Bachman 1839 Townsend's ground squirrel
 Rodentia - Cricetidae
Microtus sp. Schrank 1798 vole
Lemmiscus curtatus Cope 1868 sagebrush vole