Also known as Giant Lemur Cave, AGB

Where: Beanka, Madagascar (17.9° S, 44.5° E: paleocoordinates 17.9° S, 44.5° E)

• coordinate stated in text

When: Holocene (0.0 - 0.0 Ma)

• Because the cave is predominantly vertical, with no large areas of horizontal or near-horizontal floor, it was necessary to distinguish bone accumulations in and near the cave by separate sublocation numbers, rather than a grid reference. These are noted in Figure 2, and Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of each sublocation. ABG-1 is the sediment layer immediately east of the cave entrance. Where this rock wall enfolds to produce a small alcove, surface material and sediments were sublocated as AGB-1A. Proceeding into the main cave, a small ledge on the east wall inside is covered with a slope of fine debris (ABG-2). Directly below on the cave floor, a dead-end chamber descends farther under the east wall and is partially filled with soft clay sediment (AGB-3). Returning to the entrance, small pockets of bone-rich debris and sediment have accumulated at the base of the 3.8 m entrance drop, in a series of steps downward (AGB-4, AGB-5, and AGB-6). Immediately below AGB-5 and AGB-6 on the southward slope going back into the cave is a larger area of uneven topography, composed of large stones interspersed with bone-rich debris and sediment. This is the very productive sublocation AGB-7. Beneath the uneven floor of the cave near the entrance, there is a small chamber containing sediments with bones (AGB-8). On the opposite (west) wall of the cave, the cave floor descends to its lowest depth below the entrance at −7 m. There is a lag concentrate of darkly stained bones and fine limestone chips in this deepest pocket, in places lightly cemented into a breccia (AGB-9).

•Note: The authors do not distinguish the various specimens per sublocation, so they are all included in the same collection PBDB entry

Environment/lithology: cave; brown, red, silty claystone

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils, microfossils

• Cuts and chop marks on some bones recovered are under study, but none of the sublocations described contained a concentration of bones, pottery, or charcoal that could be attributed exclusively to human activity.

Preservation: anthropogenic

Collected in 1996 - 2009

Primary reference: D. A. Burney, H. Andriamialison, R. A. Andrianaivoarivelo, S. Bourne, B. E. Crowley, E. J. Boer, L. R. Godfrey, S. M. Goodman, C. Griffiths, O. Griffiths, J. P. Hume, W. G. Joyce, W. L. Jungers, S. Marciniak, G. J. Middleton, K. M. Muldoon, E. Noromalala, V. R. Pérez, and G. H. Perry and R. 2019. Subfossil lemur discoveries from the Beanka Protected Area in western Madagascar. Quaternary Research 1-17 [E. Vlachos/E. Vlachos]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 205190: authorized by Evangelos Vlachos, entered by Evangelos Vlachos on 08.10.2019

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)