Sheriden Cave (Pleistocene of the United States)

Where: Wyandot County, Ohio (41.0° N, 83.5° W: paleocoordinates 41.0° N, 83.5° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• small collection-level geographic resolution

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

• faunal remains and artifacts are from "two layers of cave breccia (10 and 45 thick, respectively"

•five dates range from "11,710 +/- 220" on "bulk wood charcoal" to "11,060 +/- 60" on a bone "side scraper"

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: cave; gray, silty, conglomeratic sandstone

• cave deposits that "display evidence of alluvial transport"
• "greasy, dark-gray, organic-rich... silt and sand" forms "the matrix of the breccia," which includes "boulders and cobbles" that are composed of "porous, stromatolitic, Silurian dolomite"; the two breccia layers are separated by a "wedge-shaped, banded, alluvial channel" that includes "alternating layers of gray silty-clay and red sand"

Size class: macrofossils

• "Early Paleoindian, Clovis Complex" artifacts found with the fauna include "a side scraper... a bifacial preform, chert debitage, a carved, incised, and beveled-based osseus point, and burned bone"

Collected by H. G. McDonald, K. Ford in 1990-1996

Collection methods: bulk, quarrying, sieve

• Cincinnati Museum of Natural History collection (apparently)

•"All of the sediment was water-screened through a fine mesh"

Primary reference: K. B. Tankersley. 1997. Sheriden: a Clovis cave site in eastern North America. 12(6):713-724 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: archaeological analysis

PaleoDB collection 93334: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 14.01.2010

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• "more than 60 species of large and small vertebrates" are present but only key mammals are mentioned
Mammalia
 Rodentia - Cricetidae
Microtus xanthognathus Leach 1815 taiga vole
Clethrionomys gapperi Vigors 1830 southern red-backed vole
Phenacomys intermedius Merriam 1889 western heather vole
"Synaptomys borealis" = Synaptomys (Mictomys) borealis Richardson 1828 northern bog lemming
 Rodentia - Castoridae
Castoroides ohioensis Foster 1838 giant beaver
 Rodentia - Erethizontidae
Erethizon dorsatum Linnaeus 1758 North American porcupine
 Artiodactyla - Tayassuidae
Platygonus compressus Leconte 1848 peccary
 Artiodactyla - Cervidae
Rangifer tarandus Linnaeus 1758 reindeer
Cervalces scotti Lydekker 1898 stag moose
 Carnivora - Mustelidae
Mustela erminea Linnaeus 1758 stoat
Martes americana Kerr 1792 American marten
"Martes pennanti" = Pekania pennanti Erxleben 1777 fisher
 Carnivora - Ursidae
Arctodus simus Cope 1879 giant short-faced bear
 Theriamorpha - Soricidae
Sorex cinereus Kerr 1792 cinereus shrew
"Sorex hoyi" = Microsorex hoyi Baird 1858 American pygmy shrew