Lower Rampart Cave Unit B (Holocene of the United States)

Where: Alaska (65.3° N, 151.0° W: paleocoordinates 65.3° N, 151.0° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Holocene (0.0 - 0.0 Ma)

• "sampling units were removed in 5- or 10-cm thick levels" in 1978 and "at 5-cm-thick intervals" in 1987

•unit B is not directly dated but overlying A/B contact includes dates of 3470 +/- 90 and 3510 +/- 100 on charcoal and underlying Ba is dated at 6335 +/- 80 on Picea sp.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: cave; brown breccia

• "The origins of the cave are unclear"
• "Holocene 'upper units' include Units A, B, and Ba and are brown organic breccia with unweathered clasts. The Pleistocene 'lower units' include Units C and D and are light-brown to gray calcareous breccia with weathered clasts and include faunal remains of extinct megafauna"

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: bone collector

Collected in 1978, 1987

Collection methods: bulk, quarrying, sieve

• in 1987 "sediments were sieved in the field through nested shaker screens with 1/4 and 1/8 in. mesh"

Primary reference: R. A. Sattler. 1997. Large mammals in Lower Rampart Cave 1, Alaska: interspecific utilization of an eastern Beringian cave. Geoarchaeology 12(6):657-688 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: archaeological analysis

PaleoDB collection 93337: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 14.01.2010

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• only large mammals are listed because microvertebrates are "reported elsewhere"
Mammalia
 Artiodactyla - Cervidae
Rangifer tarandus Linnaeus 1758 reindeer
 Carnivora - Ursidae
Ursus americanus Pallas 1780 black bear