Bighorn Cave - Locus B, Disaggregated owl Pellets (Holocene of the United States)

Also known as Locus B = "upper portion of the talus cone within the upper grotto"

Where: Mohave County, Arizona (35.2° N, 114.4° W: paleocoordinates 35.2° N, 114.4° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Holocene (0.0 - 0.0 Ma)

• Fauna recovered from cave fill sediments; details of stratigraphy and level designations were provided by Geib and Keller (2002)

Environment/lithology: caveunlithified

• Cave is formed within a "massive volcanic breccia" (Geib (2002:7); see also Geib and Keller (2002)

Size class: macrofossils

Collection methods: Screen mesh size reported by Geib and Keller (2002); materials for this collection were derived from disaggregated owl pellets; specimens are curated in the Laboratory of Quaternary Paleontology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona (NAUQSP)

Primary reference: C. N. Jass. 2002. Preliminary taphonomic analyses of the mammalian microfauna. Pp. 179-190 in Bighorn Cave: Test Excavations of a Stratified Dry Shelter Mohave County, Arizona (P. R. Geib, and D. R. Keller, eds.). Bilby Research Center Occasional Papers 1 (Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona). [C. Bell/C. Bell]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 63724: authorized by Chris Bell, entered by Chris Bell on 18.08.2006

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Mammalia
 Chiroptera -
Chiroptera indet. Blumenbach 1779 bat
 Chiroptera - Vespertilionidae
Myotis sp. Kaup 1829 vesper bat
cf. Myotis sp. Kaup 1829 vesper bat
Antrozous pallidus Le Conte 1856 pallid bat
 Chiroptera - Molossidae
Tadarida sp. Rafinesque 1814 free-tailed bat
cf. Eumops perotis Schinz 1821 western mastiff bat
 Rodentia - Heteromyidae
Heteromyidae indet. Gray 1868 rodent
"Perognathus of Chaetodipus sp."
cf. Dipodomys sp. Gray 1841 kangaroo rat
 Rodentia - Geomyidae
Thomomys cf. bottae Eydoux and Gervais 1836 Botta's pocket gopher
 Rodentia - Sciuridae
"Spermophilus variegatus" = Otospermophilus variegatus, "cf. Spermophilus variegatus" = Otospermophilus variegatus
"Spermophilus variegatus" = Otospermophilus variegatus Erxleben 1777 rock squirrel
"cf. Spermophilus variegatus" = Otospermophilus variegatus Erxleben 1777 rock squirrel
 Rodentia - Muridae
Muridae indet. Illiger 1811 mouse
"Peromyscus / Onychomys sp."
 Rodentia - Cricetidae
Microtus sp. Schrank 1798 vole
Neotoma sp. Say and Ord 1825 pack rat
 Lagomorpha - Leporidae
Sylvilagus sp. Gray 1867 cottontail rabbit
"Sylvilagus audubonii / floridanus"
Sylvilagus audubonii Baird 1858 desert cottontail
 Carnivora - Procyonidae
Bassariscus astutus Lichtenstein 1830 ringtail
 Carnivora - Mephitidae
Spilogale gracilis Merriam 1890 western spotted skunk
 Artiodactyla - Bovidae
Ovis canadensis Shaw 1804 bighorn sheep
 Soricomorpha - Soricidae
Notiosorex crawfordi Coues 1877 Crawford's gray shrew